


Feathers up

by Sunflowereevee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Demons, Gen, Halloween Chapter, I think I’m funny at least, It’s been a year and I’m still cleaning my awful punctuation, Nath's dad sucks, Original characters sprinkled in, Peacock Nathanaël Kurtzberg, Superheroes, Sweet sixteen dances, Will add or take away as I go, first time story, how much can I add before I have to call it an AU?, kawmi switch, piggyback racing, puns, snakes and spiders, starts as Volpina but changes to Rena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-01-05 10:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 164,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12188121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunflowereevee/pseuds/Sunflowereevee
Summary: Nathaniel was fine with living a normal life, but he daydreamed often of what it would be like as a superhero. There was just so much freedom to be had when no one knew who you were, things he couldn't do as a shy artist in the back of the classroom. Then he meets a little bird miraculous, and his life changes into one of adventure, fighting and bad jokes galore.but Paon may not realize his new found wings are held by strings, that a certain super villain has plans for Nathaniel whether he knows it or not.My first fan fiction, just something to keep me going as we all wait for season 2. Taking place after season 1 finale and after the real volpina joins the team





	1. Feathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve tried re-editing this chapter and others so many times. It will not allow me to break apart the paragraphs more to make it easier to read. Sorry about that, but I do get better with it later on.

Chapter one  
The window closed clocking Hawk moth’s lair once again, yet another failed attempt at getting the miraculous he so craved. He was silent, hearing the hundreds of butterflies fluttering back to their feeding and resting places. He couldn’t feel angry; he was far too busy thinking. “Dark wings fall” he commands dropping his costume and releasing an exhausted Nooroo, the kwami landed on the floor with a plop. His master took a croissant out of his coat pocket and handed it to him to eat; Nooroo ate in silence as his master picked him up and placed him in his coat.  
The master, Gabriel headed down the steps to a familiar painting on the wall. It was late at night so he had no concern of anyone seeing him, but he still looks behind him twice before opening the secret compartment. Even in the darkness he could see the small frame of his wife, her old fan, but the book was gone! Gabe kept his anger to a quiet growl to not wake anyone up, and decides to grab the last two things from there. They wouldn’t be safe there no more; he couldn’t lose the other two.  
Gabe’s room was lit from the moonlight and nothing else, when Gabe walked inside. He placed the picture on his dresser closest to his bed, holding the fan in his other hand. He sat on the bed and tracing his finger over the designs on the brooch, a hollow yet heavy feeling in his gut took hold.   
Nooroo didn’t like his master’s actions, but felt a twinge of sympathy for the man trapped in despair. “Master I know it’s not my place, but you must move on…” he pleads flying over to flutter in front of Gabe’s face.   
There was no change in Gabe’s expression for a solid minute, and then he spoke. “they have gotten so much better at being hero’s, even more so once that fox joined the scene.” Nooroo sighed in defeat, his pleas gone unnoticed again.   
Still Gabe spoke the truth. Ladybug, Chat noir and Volpina now were able to defeat akumantized victims as quickly as he was able to create them. He had tried sending more powerful ones, trickier, more destructive, more evil, but it was all in vain. Gabe’s grip tightened on the fan; “if only she was still here…” he trails off likely fighting off a wave of sadness. Suddenly he looks up with energy causing Nooroo to jump back in surprise. “Nooroo can your power work on this?” he asks referring to the item in his hand.   
“My power can work on a miraculous, but the most you could get would be to communicate” Nooroo explains. Cocking his little head to the side, as Gabe ponders again for a moment “I don’t understand you wouldn’t have any control over them” Nooroo adds getting bumped down to the bed by Gabe quickly standing up.   
He watched as Gabe shuffled through books underneath his desk than pulling out one with a simple black and white spiral on its cover. “if you place a frog in hot water he will jump out” Gabe starts “but place it in cold and slowly turn up the heat he will boil to death” Gabe looks at Nooroo with a childish glee.   
Upon seeing Nooroo’s confusion he sighs “Instead of simply akumatizing some sad sap I’ll send a miraculous user of my choosing slowly into a hypnotized state and get him to join the Ladybug’s team, earn their trust. Than boom he takes their miraculous and hands them to me”. He raises his arms to the sky as he finishes, the moonlight behind him blackening his expression from Nooroo.   
“Well? Could that work?” Gabe asks in slight irritation, Nooroo has no choice but to answer.  
“That could work master”.  
Nathaniel had just entered the classroom when the usual chaos began. Normally he arrived early to avoid it, but a certain blonde had caused all his coloured pencils to fall all over with her ridiculous bag. Who needed a bag that big anyway? Most ignored him as he headed to the back where his seat was, his friend and old crush: Marinette waved to him politely as he passed with a “good morning”. Her voice as beautiful as the bells to welcome those to her family’s bakery, he quickly shushed such thoughts.   
After the akuma incident it was clear she wasn’t interested that way, and he had to accept that. He sat alone as he normally did, behind the giant that was Ivan. This way he could easily work on his art whenever class started to drag, he had one project he was working on. That being a manga styled comic based on the heroes of Paris. It had started out as a simple story of them fighting against akuma’s but had at some point transformed into something a tad more mature. It was a little bit after his own akuma moment where he found himself drawing Chat noir and random akuma’s in rather suggestive poses, usually with his own character.   
Although said character seriously needed a redesign, the original was advertised as an akuma and was rather embarrassing. Marionette still played a role in the story, but was pushed into a being more of a background character as of late. The final character was Adrian, who Nath had started drawing in a rather immature fashion as a fat dork pawning after Marionette. The currant page was a fight scene based off the time Chat noir had taken down the police force doing a dance; (although this manga had it look quite differently) had he a bit of a crush on Chat? Not really, it was more of an enjoyment of drawing the cat man’s form or so he told himself.   
No one could agree on what ladybug's and chat's features were, perhaps to avoid being recognized by ordinary people. He sighed to himself, how lucky it must be to have power like that?   
Meanwhile a few seats down Alya groans in disgust as her hand comes out of her bag covered in sticky chocolate, “gross not again” she whines using a napkin to wipe it off. She glared daggers at a certain greedy Kwami hidden away in her bag.  
The ending bell couldn’t have come any sooner, the usual duo of Marinette and Adrian running out first with the others following close behind. All except Nath, who was adding the final touches to a drawing he planned to use for the cover of the manga. He realized how late it had become when the teacher turns the lights off on him to get his attention, he apologies and scampers to the schools exit. It had gotten quite dark outside, the winter cold making him shiver. He could always head back inside and wait for his mum to finish work and ride home with her. He decides against asking to be let back in by the janitor, seeing as that man wouldn’t likely. He was the last akuma victim actually, he turned into some crazy villain bent on ‘cleaning up’ Ladybug’s act. Something silly like that, the memory helping Nat not focuses on the dropping temperature for a while.  
He had almost reached his doorstep when a sudden cold wind stole away his cover drawing from his frozen hand. “Crap” he curses stumbling after the paper, fighting to get it as the wind blew in every direction making it hard to catch. He flings himself on the paper once it lands on the ground, he grins in triumph picking the slightly wet paper in his coat pocket. Nat is about to walk back when his hand touches something else hidden in the snow, he pulls it out and brushes it off. A metal and fabric fan pin is in his hand, its peacock feathers standing out to him. Maybe he wanted to draw it, or it didn’t feel right to leave something so pretty in the snow, either way he brings the item inside. Not noticing the butterfly symbol disrupting the fan’s normal pattern.  
Nath held the fan in front of him, transfixed with the detail on it. If you turned it back and forth slowly an image might appear. Something whispers to him. If he was relaxed while turning it he could almost catch a glimpse of it. He couldn’t explain why he wanted to see the image so much; he didn’t even notice the text in his phone saying his mom wouldn’t be home until very late. Back and forth he turned the fan in his hands, concentrating on finding the image within the fan. He found it difficult to see in the dark house, so he made his way to his bedroom ignoring the dinner plate on the kitchen counter. He flipped on the light and instinctively covered and rubbed his eyes at the strain as his eyes adjusted. What was he doing again? He looks around his room confused, he had blacked out for a bit there. Seeing nothing out of place he concludes he must have been tired from the day, he places the fan underneath his pillow out of reflex and goes to get ready for bed, not feeling hungry enough for dinner.  
Nath didn’t get a great sleep during the night, his mind was swarmed with strange dreams he couldn’t remember once he woke. They felt incredibly good but left a hollow feeling once he awoke, he uses a dream journal to try and record what they meant, but all he could manage was a few doodles. Once morning came he feels drowsy and sick, he was lucky it was Saturday and he could try and sleep in. His mother knocks on the door “Nath you feeling alright buddy? You didn’t eat your dinner” she calls then simply lets herself in. upon seeing her son she sighs, placing a hand on his forehead. She brushes away the red hair to reveal a very pale Nathanial with his eyes looking glassy. “Oh dear, I told you to bring a coat yesterday” she scolds with a worried expression, “You take it easy today, I’ll bring you up some soup and crackers in a bit” she adds bringing the blankets he had kicked off back on him to keep him warm. She also leaves for a moment to get a wet towel to put on his head, “okay buddy?” she questions when he doesn’t respond. Nat groans and nods his head weakly, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep. His mom gives a gentle pat to his head in a motherly fashion and then leaves with a quiet goodbye. As the door closes Nat feels a surge of energy that bolts him into sitting up on the bed, “you don’t look very good” a small squeaky voice comes from somewhere. “Who said that?” he asks in almost a whisper, the cold making him woozy again. The voice giggles “I’m under here silly, I’m a kwami”.  
Nat pulled out the fan from under his pillow, wondering if maybe the cold was making him hear things but the voice starts up again. “It’s nice to meet you Nat, my name is Duusu” the fan stated appearing to glow from the sunlight filtering through the window. Then suddenly grew so bright Nat had to shut his eyes, opening them to see a tiny bird with a large head floating in front of him. “What the hell?” he cries jumping back and slipping off the bed ungracefully. “Nathanial are you ok?” the bird questions flying over to Nat struggling to free himself from the blanket. “What? How do you know my name?” Nath questions back, looking back at the pin still in his hand then back at the bird. “I was chosen to grant you the power of the peacock, will you accept me?” She explains.  
“Like with Ladybug, and Chat Noir?”  
“Yes just like them, only way cooler”  
Their conversation goes like that for a while, Nath hardly believing his ears as Duusu explained what she could do and how the two of them would work together. “This is awesome, when can we start?” Nath stands up too quickly and dizziness makes him fall back on the bed soon after. “you’ll have to wait until you’re not sick anymore, but we can see how you look in costume” Duusu offers with a cute giggle.  
“Feathers up” Nat says confidently feeling the pin he had just placed on the inside of his jacket glow with incredible energy, had he any knowledge of the miraculous history he would have found the purple mixing with the blues and greens alarming. Duusu doesn’t seem to notice either as she flies into the pin with a shout of glee. His hands trace over his arms as if he was painting the latex (leather?)That appeared over them, large feathers of the peacock sprout with a shake from his hips; lastly his hand holds a proper fan open and covers his face. He snaps it closed reveling a teal mask to hide his identity and of course strikes a pose that’s would have been powerful had it not been coming from a humanized puppy. “Whoa” Nat gasps checking himself out in the full length mirror; “now that’s a much better shade of green” Duusu complimented now sounding from inside his head. Nat can’t help himself as he opens the window and jumps down “I’ll rest later” he claims to his new friend who giggled but didn’t argue.  
Elsewhere Marionette had just finished getting a hot chocolate with Alya when an explosion sent what remained of her cup to the snowy ground, “I have to go” both girls yelled at the same time running off in different directions. The nearby chocolate shop was in flames with people screaming and running out of harm’s way. From these flames the newest akuma revealed himself; he looked like a chef made entirely of chocolate, wearing a pair of waffle cones like sunglasses. So no more or less ridiculous then the norm, “I am the chocolatier” he cries with an evil laugh. He blasts some coworkers with mounds of melted chocolate; they scream and scramble to get the hot sweet chocolate off.  
“What a waste of perfectly good sweets” calls Ladybug using her yo-yo to wrap around the chocolatier's arm and pulling it away from the people.  
“Let me guess, you burned a batch again?” Volpina joined in landing in front of the Akuma giving him a wack with her flute. The akuma screamed in anger and pulled his arm free taking Ladybug’s balance with it. The red hero lands with a splat in a puddle of chocolate, distracting Volpina long enough for chocolatier to blast her with the now free chocolate cannon.  
“Oh come on, again?!” she complains wiping the smears off her face, the blast had sent her flying into a nearby wall, but she was far too annoyed to feel any pain. Ladybug had wiped some of the chocolate off her costume but her attention was on the akuma, mainly the stirring stick he held within the cannon. That must be where the akuma is. She uses her yo-yo to swing an innocent citizen out of harm’s way. Next she grabs Volpina by the hand as the cannon fired away at her with a steady stream of liquid goodness, “what’s the matter Volpina? Chocolate not your thing?” she teases to which Volpina rolls her eyes. But gives a warm smile at the same time, knowing Ladybug didn’t mean any harm by it.  
Up above the battle Paon Bleu had just landed on the rooftop, almost running past as he’s having a blast with this new speed and agility. He lies on his stomach to watch the scene taking place down below, “I see the girls are here, but where’s Chat?” he asks aloud.  
“Just coming in fur-shionly late” a purr comes from beside him. Had Paon’s mask not been there the world would have seen Paon’s face turn as red as his hair, there standing beside him proudly was the Chat Noir. Looking even more amazing up close, he was too star struck to hear Chat ask him a question the first time; Paon stutters an apology in embarrassment.  
Chat chuckles “I asked who you were, haven’t seen you around before” he asks for the second time. “I’m uh...” Paon begins only for Chat to cut him off, “hold that thought my lady needs me” and with that he pounces down into the action below. The chocolatier had Ladybug in a sticky situation, literally held in place by a wad of caramel, “thought I could only do milk chocolate my dear?” the akuma chirped making a grab for her earrings.  
“Don’t fur-get about me!”  
The akuma looks up seconds before Chat smacks him with a well-placed kick to the jaw. Chat lands with a superhero pose and smiles towards the girls “not a real sweetheart is he?” he remarks freeing Ladybug using a Cataclysm.  
“Nice to see you too kitty, Akuma’s in his spoon” Ladybug says pointing to the akuma, the akuma cracked his jaw back in place and prepares to fire his cannon again.  
Volpina uses her flutes illusion power to summon copies of the three heroes which fool the akuma into firing at the fakes instead, giving Ladybug the perfect opportunity to snatch the spoon from his hand. Ladybug smirked, cracking the spoon in two by throwing it to the ground.  
“No more evil doing for you little akuma”  
The chocolatier transforms back into a normal chocolate maker with the most stereotypical mustache on his face. “I am sorry ladybug, I was so angry at my co-worker dropping my latest work on the floor”. Volpina helps him up and brings him to said employee to apologise and make up like the grown men that they were. Ladybug throws her yo-yo in the air to finish the job and clean up the mess that had been made.  
With the akuma now a butterfly Ladybug compliments her teams good work, Chat begins to get their attention to point out the figure on the roof but when he looks back the roof is empty. “Where did he go?”  
Paon flew back into his bedroom and transformed back before the momentum had ceased, causing him to crash into his closet on the other side. “That was absolutely amazing” Nat breathes as the adrenaline wears off, the flu’s symptoms coming back full force. Duusu flying out of the pin and into a pile of art supplies in the corner. The two laugh at their not so graceful landing, “you should get some rest Nat, I’ll go find something to fuel up with”.  
Nat wants to tell it that he’s not even that tired but suddenly feels his eye lids shutting seconds after hearing Duusu speak. Nat’s mother comes in baseball bat in hand to find the source of the noise, the bat drops upon seeing the cause being her son. Not noticing a little bird flies out the open door planning to raid the kitchen for all it was worth.  
“What am I going to do with you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was more work then I originally thought it was, I wrote the first chapter then rewrote parts at least fifteen times. I wanted it to be at least a decent sort of fanfic, and even now there are parts I question.  
> />  
> For using the miraculous butterfly's power on another miraculous, I thought it would work as more as a communicator and maybe a stat booster. Simply because if a past incarnation of the butterfly took control of ordinary people and made them fight it would still seem more like a villain's power then anything. So if it's used on another miraculous it does't akumatize them, and hawk moth would find a little loophole in that.  
> Finally for Nathaniel to have the peacock miraculous was just too funny not to write about, the shy artist having an alter ego of the most colorful member of the team? too cute.  
> Also going to call him Nat for the most bit as I have the most awful time spelling out his full name, maybe that will change with practice.  
> Oh yes and since I'm in a university course right now updating may not come often, but I do have an ending in mind as well as a few akuma fight scenes. So I will try my best to finish the story, and not fail my schooling at the same time.


	2. Chapter 2: Fireweed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No super heroes in costume this chapter, but we do get some cute Nath and some character development. Thank you for looking at my story :)
> 
> Oh dear, I've got a ship in here. For those not after a romantic tale don't worry, it won't be the focus. I just thought it was so cute when I wrote it I simply had to include it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was all written before the acts of season two so I decided to go with a character being dead before it was confirmed they’d be appearing on the show.

Chapter 2: Fireweed  
The weekend went by too fast as it tends to do, Monday made its unwelcome appearance once more to an otherwise nice sunny day. Nathanial had told his mom he was going to walk and left the house earlier than normal.  
“Nath, I know you want to transform before class but can we save it for later?” Duusu asks poking her head out of his book bag.  
“Uh sure…is something wrong?” Nathanial questions back stepping into an ally to shield them from onlookers.  
“I don’t know um-“she shuffles in his bag looking for something “we never decided on what to use to reenergize me after a transformation” popping back up with a look that said she was holding something back.  
“Oh right, I guess not” Nat scratches behind his head in thought “what did you grab in the kitchen the other day?”  
“Let’s see I had some nuts left on the table, an apple, and I even had a few bananas before your mom came back down”  
Nathanial just laughs at the little bird’s ridiculous appetite, “and was any of that what you like?”  
Duusu flies out of the bag to sit on his shoulder “no way that’s what my last holder gave me” “oh we could find something in there” she pulls on his hair to get him to look where she is pointing with her little nub of an arm.  
“The bakery?” to which Duusu nods and hops back into the bag.  
The bakery’s bell rings though out the warm building, Marionette’s father Tom had just taken out some fresh cinnamon buns that smelled wonderful. “Good morning, what can I get for you today?” her mother Sabine does her usual greeting.  
“Hi, I’m not sure yet” Nathanial replies shyly dropping eye contact after a second. He was in Marionette’s family’s bakery, great. Maybe she was already in school. “Oh hey Nathanial, didn’t think I’d see you here”.  
Shoot.  
“uh… good morning Marionette” Nat replies turning his head away out of reflex as his face burns, thankful his hair tended to cover one side of his face often.  
“Oh right you’re one of Marionette’s classmates” Sabine chirps giving a smile as warm as the bread in the oven, “here both of you take a cinnamon bun and be off, you don’t want to be late”. She takes two from the tray Tom had set to cool using tongs of course, and places them in individual paper bags before either could argue.  
The two had walked for several minutes before Marionette spoke “So what did you do over the weekend?” her voice shattering the silence between them.  
“Nothing much, I was sick for the most bit” “What about you? “Nat gives a half-truth taking a bite out of the bun in his grip, choking down yelps as his mouth burns from the sugary treat.  
Thoughts of jumping though Paris as ladybug and researching Kawmi’s and their past holders comes to her mind, “oh you know I was working on some new designs and hanging out with Alya” she blurts out giving a nervous laugh.  
Nat gives her a look of confusion but returns to his bun without a word, it was difficult but he put the other half of the bun in bag for Duusu to sample. Noticing Marionette doing the same with her purse, living in the bakery must have allowed her to build resistance to baked goods, or so he thinks.  
They continued their walk and went to their seats with no more than a small wave; Nat proceeds to bang his head on the desk and lies in that position for the moment.  
Duusu sighed within the bag wishing she could fly out and cheer her holder up, but the many voices outside the bag tell her she has to stay put for now. She sits down and peeks into a notepad lying beside her, taking interest in her boy’s sketches and drawings.  
The sun greeted Nat when he left to have lunch in his usual spot, a bit too harshly in fact. Shielding his eyes he makes it to a bench which hid him from view from the back thanks to a large maple tree behind it. “You can come out Duusu, we’re covered here” Nat opens his bag and sits on the slightly cold bench.  
“I can’t believe how long those classes can be” Duusu begins floating up in an exaggerated matter. “I mean how you are supposed to concentrate so early in the morning?” she adds letting herself fall landing with a plop on Nathanial’s knee  
Encouraged by the small giggle Nat lets out watching her, Duusu gives one of her own “Not to mention that cinnamon bun put me to sleep, thank you for sharing”. She adds as he pulls out his drawing book and flips to a random page.  
“So is the pig tailed girl your girlfriend?” Duusu asks with a cat-like grin, Nat drops the pen he was holding in surprise and huffs in frustration.  
“No, she isn’t interested in me” he explains looking over his shoulder to see her and Alya chatting with their boys across the field. He sighs to cool himself down, pulling out a sandwich from the bag to eat while he worked.  
“But you did have a crush on her” Duusu assumes when Nat doesn’t look at her, “I saw your drawings; she was like your muse”.  
“Look it’s something I’m trying to forget about okay” Nat says defensively, raising his hand up so quickly that Duusu flinches. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you” he adds looking down sadly at the blank paper in front of him.  
“I’m sorry for bringing it up, please don’t be sad” Duusu recovers instantly and flies up to hug Nat in the chest. “I know I’ll help you find a new muse!”  
“Duusu thanks but-“ Duusu flies up into the tree to get a better look, and then is back down in less than a minute “how about blondie over there? She’d look great next to us.  
“Chloe? No offense but gag” Nath responds making a rude noise with his mouth, Duusu rolls her eyes and takes a bite of his sandwich without asking. “Well I think you’d be adorable, not that it’s possible to be any more being the peacock holder…” she trails off chewing the sandwich. “This is delicious, what is it?”  
“It’s a peanut butter sandwich” Nat answers offering her a bigger piece this time, thankful to be off the subject for the moment.  
“Nathanial I would like one of these after we transform” she says seriously, holding the sandwich up like it was much fancier then it was.  
Nat smiles again taking a bite for himself “sounds good to me”.  
It was an hour before class ended when Nathanial got an idea for a drawing; he went to the school’s library as soon as he could to grab some reference notes. It was there where Adrian found him, stenciling out the curves in a peacocks feathers.  
“Did you see him too?” Adrian asks putting a hand on Nathanial’s shoulder. Causing the poor redhead to jump in his seat, putting one hand over where the peacock pin was hidden under his jacket.  
Adrien seriously needed to consider wearing a bell or something with the way he snuck up on people. “See who?” he plays dumb. Than regrets it looking back down at the drawing again. It was him in the Paon Bleu outfit sitting on a rooftop, one hand holding what was supposed to be a sandwich and the other holding a fan. Below his form was an actual peacock flying past with its tail feathers tucked behind it. Even though he had yet to colour it, it was very clear who it was supposed to be.  
“That’s the peacock miraculous isn’t it?” Adrian claims pointing to the drawing, “I saw him a few nights ago, I wonder if he’s part of ladybug’s team” He adds taking his hand off Nat to put behind his head in a care free action. He knew full well ladybug had no idea of this miraculous holder (or akuma) existed yet.  
“Oh him, uh yea I saw him yesterday” Nathanial shyly confirms closing up the book he was using and beginning to put away his supplies.  
“How awesome would it be for there to be another guy on the team, Chat noir was starting to look like the one guy out” Adrien jokes sitting down in the chair beside Nat, giving the shy boy more space and made Adrian at eye level with him.  
“Yea, he was starting to look like a real ladies man” Nat jokes back, noticeably relaxing and stopping from cleaning up for the moment. To which Adrien sees as a sign of victory. He never really spoke with Nathanial before and maybe they could be good friends.  
Before either of them can say something else, Adrien’s phone buzzes with a notification. He opens it on a reflex and jumps up when he reads it “I got to go, I’m going to be late” he claims with a defeated tone. Having totally forgot about the photo shoot he had to go to, “see you later Nath” Adrien throws out as he exits the library in a rush.  
“That was close” Duusu whispers poking her head out from the bag. Nat makes a sound of agreement and puts the unfinished drawing in the bag, planning to finish it later.  
When the two left the building, it wasn’t nearly as sunny as before. Dark angry clouds surrounded the sky, hiding the sun above them, “Perfect, and here I am without an umbrella” Nat sarcastically comments.  
“Aren’t you glad you have me?” Duusu chirps holding up a small umbrella she had stashed away that morning. Nat smiles taking it from her “yea, I really am”.  
In one of the bigger houses in Paris a familiar scene is taking place, that being a certain blonde brat throwing a hissy fit while her friend waits quietly for her to cool down. “What do you mean you’re going away for two weeks? Who am I going to hang out with?” Chloe spits with a flip of her hair.  
“Chloe I told you weeks in advance I have to go to England with my family for a get together” Sabrina calmly explains yet again to her spoiled friend.  
“But Daddy is going away too, I’ll have no one to talk to” Chloe continues her whining deciding to sit on the couch in her room and pout childishly. To which Sabrina rolls her eyes, and makes her way to the door.  
“See you later Chloe” she calls but Chloe doesn’t answer, Sabrina takes no offense to this and leaves without saying another word.  
Chloe takes deep breaths in the now quiet and dark room, feeling awful about everything. She sends an apology text to Sabrina and sighs when there was no answer, her room was large but so empty of meaningful things. She hadn’t told Sabrina what was really going on, she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.  
Today marked the day her mother disappeared from her life. Sure she had walked out several times and come back, but a few years ago she came back in a coffin rather a limo. She brought her knees to her chest wishing she had someone to distract her from the day. But who really would spend time with her? The poor little rich girl had pushed away anyone that tried to get close to her. Everyone was glad to leave her alone, to call out her rudeness and see her as nothing but a bully. To which Chloe can’t blame them, she did hold the record for causing most akuma attacks after all.  
Her driver knocks on the door to announce her ride was ready and she followed without a word, not noticing she left her cell phone on the couch.  
Winter still held its grip despite it getting close to the spring months in a few days; the snow that remained swallowed up any sound other than Chloe’s footsteps as she walked to the familiar grave. A man wearing a bright red tropical style shirt stood in front of it, “hey who the heck are you?” Chloe calls her anger hollow.  
The mysterious old man turns and gives her a small smile “I am visiting an old friend, am I not allowed to do that?”  
“I um...” Chloe trails off looking down at the gravestone, “she was my mother” she says bending down to brush the slush off the name.  
“I can tell, you have her looks” he kneels beside the emotionally fragile girl, observing as she desperately tried to harden her heart again so it wouldn’t be hurt. “I know she loved you very much”, the man claims preparing for her to blow.  
“THEN WHY DID SHE LEAVE?” Chloe shouts unable to hold back the tears that ripped through the walls she had worked so hard to build. “We needed her, look what my daddy has become, look at the mess I’ve become”  
She rants and sobs uncontrollably to the man who was just a stranger, yet had torn down Chloe’s hard exterior with just a sentence. The man waited patiently for Chloe to pull herself together again, once her shouting had quieted to gentle sobs he spoke. “It is never too late to start again” and with that thought in the air he walks away.  
“What does he know?” Chloe snaps to herself now alone in front of the stone, she wipes the tears off her face taking away the makeup along with it. After a minute she stands up saying good bye to the grave and makes her way back to the gates in the cemetery. Her driver opens the door for her but she doesn’t get in, “I’m going to walk back thanks” she says starting to walk in the other direction. Her driver simply shrugs and drives off without her thankful she had found a different way to blow off steam, seconds into her walk the sky breaks into a small shower of rain.  
The old man holds a hand up to catch a cold raindrop in his palm “ah, spring brings new beginnings” he says to the air, opening his umbrella and watching Chloe begin her long walk home.  
It had seemed like a good idea at the time to walk home, but now the rain was coming down so hard it felt like rocks hitting the back of her neck. Chloe grumbled to herself wishing she could have bought her phone to call her driver back, or at least had an umbrella. Adding to her frustration is that she is completely lost in an unfamiliar part of Paris; she couldn’t even see the Eiffel tower when she looked up. With a sigh she plops down on the sidewalk with her feet on the road, forgetting the rain would create puddles and she sits in a small one much to her utter delight.  
“Duusu that’s never going to work” Nathanial whines softly as the two make their way down the empty street. The two had begun discussing how he was going to meet up and possibly even join with ladybug and the others; Nat was already getting cold feet about the subject much to Duusu’s annoyance.  
“Nath we’re going to see them sooner or later, wouldn’t it much cooler if we swoop out the sky, give ladybug a bow and defeat an akuma at the same time?” Duusu persists from her seat in the bag. Smiling and giggling at the thought, “they’d love us in no time” she claims.  
“Maybe if it was someone else but I just can’t do something as bold as that” Nat argues brushing some of the hair out of his eye only for it to fall back down to cover his face.  
“My cute little peachick, I’ll get you to free your wings soon enough” Duusu promises, adding a wink from her dark brown eyes. Before Nathanial can ask what the heck she was tweeting about now, she gasps overdramatically and points towards something on the other side of the street. “Don’t just stand there, go help her up” Duusu commands bringing the cover of the bag over her body to hide herself “I’m rooting for you” she chirps as Nat rolls his eyes.  
When the rain pelting her head suddenly stops Chloe looks up expecting to see the sun, instead a classmate of hers stands above her with an umbrella in his grasp. Based off his expression he was less then excited about seeing her, one hand even on his hip in a sassy fashion. “What do you want? Come to laugh at me?” Chloe mutters almost too quiet to hear.  
“Actually I was going to ask if you needed a hand” Nat replies just as coldly, leaning over to offer his hand to her. Admittedly it was a little hard to keep the coldness act, seeing Chloe without her makeup, alone and soaked in the rain was quite a sad sight to see.  
Chloe hesitates but takes his hand and pulling up to his eye level, although she still stood just a few centimeters taller than the redhead. “Thanks…” she says giving him a moment of eye contact than looking back at the ground.  
Nat gives a small “no problem” and the two drop hands standing awful close under the shared umbrella, a nudge from his bag against his leg forces him to continue. “You’re uh, soaked Chloe” he starts fidgeting with the bags strap “My house is nearby…if you want to dry off” he finishes turning his head in the direction he was heading.  
“That uh… would be great” Chloe says in the same awkward manner, letting Nat take the first step before following close behind. Nathanial tries to be content with her but can’t stop himself from seeing her visibly shivering from the rain, not to mention her shirt was practically see though at the moment.  
“Here” he says before he even realises what he’s doing he’s taking off his own jacket and wraps it around her. Chloe in turn feels her whole body heat up from the kind gesture; the jacket was small and a little ratty. Definitely not something Chloe would ever consider wearing, but the jacket is warm and dry so she holds is close taking in the heat she hadn’t realized was missing. Muttering another “thanks” as the two soon reach Nat’s home a few minutes later.  
The two enter an empty house smaller and more cluttered then Chloe would have thought, then again it was just him and his mom, plus they weren’t nearly as rich as she was. He places the bag on the kitchen table delicately, likely to preserve whatever drawings he was working on in there. He tells her to wait while he goes to find a towel, when he comes back with a good sized one Chloe takes notice of the large blue pin on his left side of his chest. “Didn’t think you were the jewelry wearing type” she remarks using patting motions on her hair with the towel.  
“Oh um yea it was a gift…” Nathanial quickly says grabbing on to the pin protectively, feeling foolish for forgetting about the miraculous long enough for Chloe of all people to see it. Now she was going to either tease him about it or use it as some sort of blackmail, course he could always counter fire with finding her in the rain. But Chloe knew him well enough that he would never have the guts to say something like that to the entire class, he would hardly speak at all if he didn’t have to.  
“Well we are totally going to have to go shopping for a better shirt for it, it’s way too pretty to keep hidden underneath an old jacket” her usual matter of speaking comes out before she could stop it, she covers her face in the towel to dry it taking a little longer than necessary “I mean it’s a little tacky, but it suits an artist” she adds giving the best compliment her brain would come up with.  
Nathanial hunches over letting more hair fall in front of his face, “Thanks I guess” he says fiddling with the pin on his chest. His eyes spot a butterfly in the pin’s feathers for a split second making him tense up, “Do you have your driver’s number handy? I can call him to come pick you up” Nat asks looking back up at her trying to appear like nothing was the matter.  
Chloe wasn’t great at reading other people, sometimes she ignored it completely to continue to stay in loveable deceitful bliss, but she sensed something change with Nathanial and gives him the drivers number she had conveniently written on a paper in her change purse, the one thing dry on her.  
Within minutes the fancy car pulls up and honks to make its presence known, Chloe is just about to leave though the front door when she stops suddenly “oh your jacket” she says remembering and started to strip off the damp clothing.  
“Keep it, I got like eight just like it” Nathanial claims stopping her in her tracks, then she bursts out in a fit of giggles “yeah don’t we all?” she admits in between laughs.  
Nathanial joins in with a small laugh of his own, both of them stopping when the car honks again impatiently. A clap of thunder is heard as Chloe puts the jacket on properly, putting the hood over her flat ponytail. “I’ll see you tomorrow toma- Nathanial” Chloe says giving a small smile and running down to the car, Nathanial closing the door as it leaves.  
“Aw look at you giving a girl your jacket on your first outing” Duusu coos from her watching post on the couch, amazing that neither Nat nor Chloe had seen her get out of the bag.  
“Be quiet you, it doesn’t mean anything” Nathanial defends himself trying to hide the goofy grin that had broken out on his face. He looks back at the miraculous to confirm his earlier sighting but finds nothing abnormal in the feathers, certainly not a butterfly in the pattern. He shrugs and pushes it out of his mind, summing it up as a trick of the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay got another Chapter finished, probably should have been doing homework instead but I'll catch up soon enough.  
> For anyone curious about the name of the chapter I thought about what could mean second chances, and fire weed is this beautiful purple flower that grows around my home and is known to be the first thing to pop up after a forest fire. Kinda like the woods being given a second chance at growth.  
> For Duusu wanting a peanut butter sandwich is also based off my real life from my late aunt in the country, who kept peafowl as either pets or they just showed up one day. A memory I have of them is my sister and I throwing bits of our sandwiches at them so they'ed leave us alone, otherwise the nasty birds would chase us down. I did check and peanut butter is fine for peafowl's.  
> Get ready for a epic hilarious Akuma fight next chapter, coming...soon.


	3. Chapter three a real charmer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this isn't the funny battle, I decided while editing to push it back for now, but this one has a few jokes so there is that.

“You weren’t joking about the jackets” Duusu gasps getting a glimpse of the inside of Nathanial’s filthy closet, full of old drawings and paintings as well as plenty of the same jacket with a few variety’s in clothes with visible dust on them.  
“What can I say? I like them” Nath replies with a shrug, putting a new drawing pad in his bag for the day.  
“Aw you look so cute” Duusu coos looking at an old family photograph, there were three people in total wearing what must have been vacation attire. A little Nathanial grins in a yellow hat holding his moms hand and waving with the other, the man must have been the dad. Duusu could tell the man was really tall and Nath had gotten his redhead from him.  
“I forgot about that photo” Nathanial confessed, taking it from Duusu and placing it face down on the nightstand, ignoring the confused look he got from her.  
“Nath I was about to head off, need a lift?” Nat’s mom opens the door without warning, acting quickly Nath grabs his pillow off the bed and throws it on top of Duusu who gives a peep of surprise.  
Nathanial’s mom looks at him questionably, “there was a bug…I got it” he lies putting his hands behind his back and smiling sheepishly.  
“Rrrrright” she stretches out the word, “so you are coming?” she asks again.  
“Uh yea I’ll meet you down there” Nath answers pretending to be busy picking the right pencil, his mom muffles a laugh and closes the door.  
“Ow…” a sound comes from the pillow, “sorry I panicked” Nath claims picking the little bird up. She pouts in his hands “next time a warning please” she pleads rubbing her head which was still dizzy from the attack.  
When they arrived it seemed that nothing had changed, other than Sabrina being absent. Chloe acted like the incident yesterday had never happened, being occupied with her pocket mirror as he passed, to which he shrugs and decides not to mention it either. Once he sits down he is surprised to see Adrian walk up to him, pausing at his desk.  
“Hey Nath, Nino and I were going to go to the out lit mall after school, want to come?” Adrian asks giving a gentle smile. Down at the front Nino gives a thumb up to him and turns his attention back to Alya and whatever they were talking about.  
“Uh sure” Nathanial agrees “you don’t have a photo shoot to go to?” he asks in a half joking fashion.  
“I was able to clear my schedule for today, text you the details” Adrian smiles again and dashes back to his seat before Nath could say anything else. That boy didn’t know how to stop modeling, Nath swore there was sparkles coming off him as he jumped into his seat.  
Too bad he always stank of cheese.  
An hour later he received a text from Adrian to meet at the outdoor mall to the north of the school, how he got Nathanial’s number Nath had no idea. It wasn’t like he texted anyone in his class, except Rose and Juleka sometimes. Regardless he sends a simple “okay” and goes to change the number to Adrian’s name in the settings, but then decides to have a little fun and puts “sparkle boy” instead.  
The first few minutes at the mall were stiff and awkward, Nath being shy, Adrian being inexperienced and Nino trying his best to break the ice. It wasn’t until they came across a booth selling anime based items did something spark. “I could totally see Chat Noir pulling off an Ikuto Tsukiyomia cosplay” Nathanial remarks waving a copy of a Shugo Chara with said character on the front.  
“Ha, he totally could” Adrian laughs grabbing a manga with a different cover to peek at. “Are you a fan of this kind of stuff?” he asks turning his attention back to the red head.  
Nathanial confirms by showing the other boys some sketches he had done using the styles of many different anime’s “I didn’t think you were a fan” he blurts out smiling shyly as Adrian looks at the sketches with a childlike glee. Before Adrian can answer Nino cuts in, slapping Adrian on the back as he does so.  
“Adrian would talk my ears off about it if I let him”.  
Nathanial and Adrian quickly end up in conversation about their favorite’s anime’s, characters, and even little things they liked and disliked. Nino takes this as an opportunity to put on his headphones; relived Adrian had found someone that actually shared Adrian’s obsession.  
Taking place a few stalls away Nathanial’s mom was happily buying herself a new blouse, it looked exactly like the one she was wearing, and she even got some cute black gloves on sale. She was just about to head to the next stand when a voice freezes her in her tracks.  
“Cal is that you?” a masculine voice chirps behind her, She turns around to half-heartedly greet the man. He had a smile that looked friendly on the surface, but was as real as the vampires on his shirt. “Cal I missed you, how’s my son doing?”  
“He’s doing fine Ralph; he’s becoming a real artist” Cal answers tightening her grip on her bag looking to her side before she can help it. She cursed herself for her words when the usual coldness swallows up the smile Ralph had been presenting.  
“An artist? You turning that boy into a bigger pansy then he already is?” he stomps over to her and jabs a finger into her shoulder, Cal barley flinches at his harsh tone.  
“I let him do what he likes, so what if it’s different?” She fired back pushing his thin finger off her, turning her back to him and preparing to leave.  
“First the ballet and now this” Ralph spits back grabbing her by her free hand and forcing her to turn and face him again, ignoring her hisses to let her go. “I’ll let you know I was at the court today, they think he should live with his old man more often” “maybe that will toughen him up” he continues with a smirk.  
He was so close now Cal could smell the cigar smoke on his breath making her eyes water with the stench. “How dare you, we agreed you could visit on holidays and weekends, which by the way I haven’t seen your stupid mug in weeks” Cal snaps freeing her arm “And Nath joined my dance classes because at least I gave attention to him, unlike you” she finishes turning so quickly her ponytail whips Ralph in the face, stunning him long enough that she was able to disappear from his sight. That is until he sees a tree decoration with some orange hair sticking out from the side.  
“I’ll make him a real man, you’ll see” Ralph growls and stomps off in the other direction. From behind the tree Cal tries unsuccessfully to force down the sobs that echoed from her throat, she never wanted to deal with this again. Nath and her were so happy as it was, why did he have to come back and ruin it all?  
Her mother instincts were kicking in to go and to the court and demand they change their minds when her hand suddenly burns in pain, she looks down just in time to see a dark purple smoke slip into her old wedding ring. Bringing her burning anger and sadness to the surface as it covers her body taking on the texture of slime.  
“I would say Blue exorcist is my favorite right now, I just started season two and it’s looking really promising” Nathanial claims watching as Adrian puts his latest purchase in his bag, a bunch of stinky Danish cheese.  
“There’s a season two?” Adrian asks with restrained excitement, he grabs Nino’s shoulder to get him to take off the headphones “Dude there’s a season-“  
Screams cut him off and the boys look in horror at the newest Akuma, this being a large snake. Its large head was that of a cobra and its body was gold and scaly, the only thing that wasn’t snake like was the two arms she had pinned to her sides. She opened her mouth to reveal sharp fangs and people were lucky enough to get out of the way as it gobbled up a stall filled with fruits and cheese. Then the monster slithered up a pole to scan the crowd, eyes large and unblinking.  
The boys end up separated as the crowd of shopper’s race away from the snake, perhaps it was for the best since both Adrian and Nath had things to attend to.  
“Nath we need to transform” Duusu cries from the bag as Nath looks for a spot where they could without onlookers seeing, he spies Adrian ducking behind the info centre and keeps going. A shadow over his head forces him to screech to a stop as the akuma lands right in front of him, flicking her tongue out. Nath tried to dodge as she lunges towards him, but she is faster and grabs him with her arms he hadn’t noticed she was hiding. Duusu and him cry out as her talons slice into his skin and cause him to bleed slightly. Her eyes widen in alarm at the blood and she puts him gently into her coils, pinning the two in place, she then spots her other target having tripped over fallen merchandise and scooping himself up.  
He screams and ducks as she pounces with her fangs fully intending to rip him to shreds, when a yo-yo wraps itself around her snout and forces it to shut. Chat Noir appears and grabs the terrified man out of harm’s way. “Whoa, that’s a little cold blooded” he jokes landing, gasping when he sees Nathanial struggling in her coils.  
Ladybug enters the scene using all her strength to keep the snakes mouth shut, not seeing its arms grab the string and yank her into the air. Ladybug uses the speed she gains against the snake and delivers a powerful kick to its eye. “Nath we’re coming for you” she calls to the red head.  
The snake roars and spits venom at the super heroine, who dodges seconds before it hits and melts the stall behind her into a gross puddle. “Acid venom, perfect” she remarks sarcastically, jumping again and again as the snake fires.  
“Nice to see you here Ladybug, I hissed you” Chat jokes with a grin, using his baton to get the snakes attention away from her “hey how many feet are you? Oh wait you don’t have any” he fires as the snake lunges for him.  
Nath manages to get one arm free from its prison, which is grabbed by Ladybug suddenly appearing beside him “hold on Nathanial I’ll get you out of there” she promises.  
“NOOO!” a desperate cry makes Ladybug jump back, just missing being hit by acid as the snake quickly turns and fires venom at her again. Ladybug has no choice but to leap away leaving Nathanial to avoid losing more than an eye. “You will not take him away, no one will take him away” the snake screeches tightening her grip on poor Nath. He was quickly turning blue from lack of oxygen, but he was far more concerned about the little bird helpless in his bag. Thinking fast he grabs a pen he had hidden in his pocket and jammed the sharp point into the snake’s scales.  
She loosens her coils in surprise just long enough to allow him to fall though and land on the street below, “hey are you alright?” he asks Duusu quietly.  
“I’ll be fine…!” she chirps in alarm and Nath turns to see the snake glaring at him, discovering he had escaped, but instead of fleeing Nath notices something familiar in her eyes. The same bluish green eyes stare each other down “Mom?”  
Volpina appears and snatches him away before the snake realizes what has happened. She dumps him behind a dumpster and plays her flute to create an illusion that looked just like him. “Sorry can’t stay to talk, stay hidden okay?” she orders breathlessly and grabs the illusion.  
Nathanial watches her leave with the illusion of him disappear over to battle, once they’re a safe distance away he opens his jacket to expose the pin. “Duusu feathers up”  
With a flash of blue and purple magic, Nathanial disappears and Paon Bleu stands in his place, he summons two fans in each hand and raises them up. He flaps them down and launches into the air, using the fans to glide down.  
The battle had become a game of keep away; Volpina flew straight up with the illusion as the snake smacks right into a nearby building. “Where’s the Akuma?” she shouts to an equally lost ladybug. The three heroes land on a building to catch their breath, Chat offering to take the illusion to give Volpina a break. “Oh no she’s going after the man again” Ladybug gasps and sprints off in the direction of the Akuma, the others following close behind.  
The snake akuma smashes the wood the man was using to hide behind, “You will never hurt us again” she announces and prepares to squish him with her tail. She stops in her tracks as a colourful creature lands in front of her, his arms out to shield the man. “Get out of the way” she hisses, clenching her hands into fists.  
Ladybug and co land beside the newcomer, before any introductions can be made Paon points “the akuma is in her ring” he claims. Chat wastes no time in pouncing towards her, Volpina saving his hide from being smacked down by throwing the illusion of Nathanial to her left. The snake panics and goes to catch what she thought was her boy, allowing Chat to snatch the ring off her finger. Chat throws it down and smashes it before she can recover from the trick, “you know what they say, you can’t venom all” Chat shoots one last joke while Ladybug does her thing. Restoring the mall to the way it was before the attack.  
“Now with that over who are-“Ladybug turns expecting to see the peacock holder but finds only air instead “-you?” Everyone glances around but don’t see the feathered hero anywhere, but they do see Nathanial running towards the akuma victim.  
“Mom you okay?” Nathanial asks getting on his knees to assist her into a kneeling position. Cal groans but forces a smile and whisper not to worry, grabbing and holding him in a gentle hug. She was honestly just glad to see him safe and sound; of course the moment is tainted when Ralph opens his pie hole.  
“Nathanial don’t I get a hug?” He asks with the false smile again, he walks over to Nath fully expecting him to give in like the good boy that he was supposed to be. Ralph gets rather confused when Nathanial gets to his feet and pushes him away.  
“Leave us alone Ralph” he orders strongly but calm, in such a way that even Nath is surprised by it. “You’ve done enough” he adds, hoping Ralph would just leave without a fight.  
Too bad that just wasn’t in the days plan, as Ralph’s face flushes as red as his hair “now you don’t disrespect your father like that” he growls “is that what your mom has been teaching you? Well I’ll have you know you’ll be staying with me next week so I expect you’ll change that attitude” he finishes crossing his arms in front of his chest.  
“What! That’s not fair”  
“Life isn’t fair deal with it”  
Chat shifts uncomfortably at the scene taking place in front of him, preparing for the second it becomes violent. It seemed Nathanial and Adrian had another thing in common, a father that kind of sucked. Ralph gives Nath a rough noogie and walks away before anyone can protest, the other mall shoppers returning to continue on as normal.  
A familiar beeping brings him back to reality, and everyone waves goodbye and disappears in different directions. Nath grumbles as he shakes his hair back into its usual position in front of his face, Cal puts a hand on his shoulder in a silent apology. Adrian appears from where ever he was hiding, Nino following soon after. “I think I’m going to go home now, thanks for inviting me” Nathanial says without emotion and taking off in a jog before anyone could stop him.  
“Nathanial” A quiet voice whispers from his bag, Duusu was a little bummed to find no sandwich waiting for her after they transformed but the sight in front of her was more important than her empty tummy. Nathanial had run all the way home, having enough sense left to place the bag gently on the bed before collapsing into a ball on the bedroom floor. He was currently using a discarded shirt to muffle any noises that came from his throat, mixes of sobs and screams were still heard clearly to the little bird. “Nath…” she tries again floating over towards him and landing by his side.  
He looks up at her this time, rubbing at his blood shot eyes “right, I’m sorry you’re probably hungry” he says pulling himself up. Duusu can’t deny her stomach growling louder with each minute, so she doesn’t stop him but flies up to sit on his shoulder. Giving his neck a small hug as he headed down to the kitchen in the empty house, Cal had phoned and told him she was going to the court to try and change their minds as well as to make sure he was okay. It had took Duusu a lot of strength not to cry at the act Nath put on for her, saying he was fine and she shouldn’t worry.  
She eats quietly while Nath sits on the kitchen counter; “when I’m finished let’s head out” she offers flying up to brush the hair out of his face. Nathanial’s face lights up slightly, “yea let’s do that”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all anime mentioned in this chapter are not owned by me, Miraculous is also not owned by me. I own nothing.  
> not sure if I need to do that, but I suppose it couldn't hurt.  
> when I first wrote this I had the Akuma being a bear crossed with a snake, but writing it turned out in a way that sounded too dumb, so I changed it to being just a snake.  
> I've got the next few chapters in their first draft phase right now, and I have a huge exam next week. So I hope taking the time to write this hasn't wrecked my chances at it.  
> Need that Miraculous "lucky charm" right about now ha ha.


	4. let the games begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe hilarious is a bit extreme, but this battle is certainly wacky. I had fun writing it.  
> Thank you for reading :)

Chapter 4 let the games begin  
There was something about running over the rooftops that was intoxicating to Nathanial, the wind in his hair, the speed he could reach when he timed his jumps correctly, leaving behind his normal life for just a while was just what he needed. When he decided to stop on the roof of one building he did a few spins during the landing just for the heck of it, his ears ringing from the all the wind he had blown past.  
“This was a great idea Duusu, thank you” Nath whispers watching the sun begin to set, indicating he should head back soon.  
“Uh…yes it was” She replied back in a quiet tone, something about it felt off to Nathanial. He had started to notice that whenever they transformed, Duusu didn’t seem like herself. Not to mention whenever they spoke he would start to get a headache. “Duusu is everything alright?” he asks rubbing his temple as a prementioned headache starts to form.  
Their conversation is interrupted by a scream coming towards them, Nath looks up just in time to see a yellow sun flying towards him. The sun smacks into him and sends them flying into the streets below; luckily it wasn’t that far a drop. Just enough to dim the headache from the aching of everything else, he felt the weight of the sun on him. Warm but not hot as one would expect, he opens his eyes to see that the sun was actually a girl. She wore a bright yellow bodysuit with black stripes, and her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail. Two little antenna poked out from her hair elastic and on her back were large see through wings, glowing softly from flying.  
“Sorry I didn’t know how to stop” The bee girl says getting off him quickly and helping him up, she smiled shyly at him. “Oh and I’m Queen bee, Paris’s new hero” She adds grinning this time; it lit up her face in the most adorable way.  
“Paon Bleu” Paon says bowing with a mischievous glint in his eyes, “I have not met Paris royalty as beautiful as you before” he adds. Suddenly he hears a thump behind him; Paon turns to discover his tail feathers had spread out in a grand display of colour. Embarrassed by the costume malfunction he quickly tries to push them back down, making Queen Bee laugh in the process.  
The way she giggled at him and blushes slightly made Paon glow inside, he would never have had the courage to say such things as Nath but as Paon he felt so free.  
Queen opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a familiar voice, “hey it’s peacock boy” Volpina calls jumping and landing in front of them. “I was starting to think you were playing bat man” she then turns to Queen Bee. “You must be the new teammate Ladybug was telling us about, nice job catching the rogue”  
Paon and Queen have the same look of confused shock at Volpina’s words, “No I’m not I-“  
“Then what was with your disappearing act earlier? And how did you know where the Akuma was?” Volpina fires cutting him off, she has her hands on her flute in a way that threatened she was going to hit him with it.  
“Volpina thanks for the enthusiasm but I don’t think that’s necessary” Ladybug appears behind her grabbing her lightly by the shoulder, Paon breaths out in relief as Volpina relaxes her stance. She still was giving him a suspicious look but it was better than before.  
“I knew the Akuma victim, so I had a pretty good idea what happened” He shrugs “it made symbolic sense to be the ring” Paon explains hoping he wasn’t digging himself into a bigger hole, “I left cause I thought she would recognise me”.  
Volpina can’t shake the feeling that something was off, he looked normal enough at least for a guy dressed in a peacock costume anyway. She didn’t say anything as Ladybug greeted Queen Bee who looked rather star struck, and explained the charms that prevented people from seeing though the mask.  
“Volpina and I were just heading towards our meeting spot to meet up with Chat, why don’t we decide what to do with you guys there?” Ladybug suggests “if you can keep up” she adds in challenge then uses her yo-yo to leap to the nearest building.  
Later that night, in an apartment building in the older part of town two teenagers are arguing with each other. “I can’t believe we were so close brother, we failed our school” the girl complains throwing herself on the bed in their room.  
“It wasn’t our fault, I pushed the buzzer first the host was bias” the boy claims shutting the door a tad too hard, “there’s no point in staying frustrated” he adds to remind himself as well as his sister.  
The two were almost identical twins, the gender being the only real difference. Having the same small brown eyes, round faces and sleek black hair, they even dressed similarly just for the fun of it. They had come to Paris on behalf of their school located in Osaka Japan, to compete in a game show about all kinds of known subjects. They had made it to the final round and lost to the other team by a few points, to which they were both still fuming about hours later.  
“Hey brother what are those?” the sister asks pointing to two flying objects fluttering though the open window, neither remembered opening it. Her brother looks and grabs her hand in alarm “they are akuma’s we have to run!”  
The two bolted outside of the apartment door with the two black butterflies close behind, they made it to the stair case when the sister slipped on the railing causing them both to fall and break though the stair’s rusty ending. With over four for flights to go, it was quite the drop. Luckily the sister had grabbed a bit of metal with one hand her brother in the other. They struggled for a minute then the Akuma’s hit and absorbed into the twins matching ties.  
“I can feel your anger, care to make a deal?” a voice flowed like velvet in their ears.  
“Wow he’s fast” Ladybug comments to Volpina as they watch the two new recruits behind them, Paon would reach where they were almost instantly. Stopping only to let them lead to the meeting spot, Queen Bee on the other hand was keeping up but was still fairly new to the wings. Volpina makes a side note to give her some tips later if all goes smoothly. They meet up with Chat soon enough, he was waiting on the usual rooftop twirling his baton in boredom.  
“Finally I was starting to think I’d be alone tonight, looking paw-sitivly gorgeous tonight my lady” Chat purrs trying to kiss Ladybug’s hand, Ladybug rolls her eyes and brings his attention to the new guys. “The great guardian told about the bee joining us, but the bird is certainly a surprise” she remarks watching Paon shift uncomfortably under her gaze.  
“No claws for alarm just yet, why don’t I take him on patrol tonight and show him how it’s done?” Chat suggests “we’ll take the meowth side of the city” he adds pointing south and giving a cheeky smile inwardly laughing at his puns.  
“Fine, ladies you’re with me” Ladybug says putting her arms around the two girls, which causes Queen Bee to accidently let out a fangirl squeal in delight. “See you later boys” Ladybug calls out recovering from the assault on her ears as she swings away with her flying companions.  
Chat notices the loving look on Paon’s face and bumps him to snap him out of it, “Don’t be getting any ideas bird boy, she’s my lady” he says meaning to joke about it, but his voice has a tinge of jealousy that Paon picks up on. Paon simply smirks “oh by all means she’s yours all right” he teases “I’ve got another Applebee of my eye”.  
They had patrolled for a while cracking bad jokes every chance they got, until they reached an ally way where Chat stopped and became unusually quiet. “Something’s not right” He whispers, sniffing the air and scanning the darkness.  
A laugh from behind makes the boys jump, they turn to find an akumantized girl wearing a purple suit with a large top hat, one hand had a white glove and she had the usual butterfly painted on her face and a wicked smile to go with it. “Step right up contestants, you’re next to play-“she grabs the boys before they can react and drops them on a stage that suddenly appeared.  
“THE GAME SHOW!!” she cries using a microphone that appeared in her hand, spotlights blind them and cheering could be heard from an invisible audience. Just as the heroes recovered from being blinded, ropes wrap around them hoisting them into the air. “All right gentleman who can tell me what Akuma means?”  
Both Chat and Paon stumble trying to figure out what was going on, a loud air horn makes them both cringe in pain “aw, too slow” she laughs and makes a pie appear and fly in the boys faces.  
“Lovely” Paon mutters sarcastically.  
Chat gets out his claws to tear though the ropes, allowing them both to fall to the stage below. They land with Chat on all fours and Paon striking a pose with his fans and his legs bent at the knees. “You distract her, I’ll call Ladybug over” Chat orders taking out his baton that conveniently had a phone in it.  
“No, no, no, boys that would be against the rules” a male voice booms from above them, and the fans and baton fly out of the boys hands like they were magnetically pulled. A second akumantized person flies into view holding the weapons in some kind of energy ball, “and we have very strict penalties for rule breaking” he adds darkly.  
“Two akuma’s at once?” Paon asks looking at Chat to confirm, Chat just shrugs “nothing we can’t handle”. Chat smirks seeing the screen on his baton lit up, he had just enough time to call before it was snatched. Ladybug and the others would be on their way.  
The villains fly up to each other and grab each other’s gloved hand, the boy made a mic of his own appear with his tie flashing it into existence. “The Akuma must be in there” Chat states pointing to them.  
“Now let us introduce ourselves-“the boy teleports to Chat and flings him into the air, the girl grabs Paon as he tries to kick her brother. “I am Host-kun!” The suited boy shouts sending Chat onto a giant treadmill, which started slow but quickly sped up to a decent jog.  
“And I am Host-Chan” the girl claims tossing a screaming Paon into a bunch of giant bowling pins, managing to get a strike. She laughs at Paon’s humiliation, flying down to grab him again  
“Toucan play at that game”  
Paon recovered from the crash and grabbed Host-Chan before she could react, and kicked her towards a slope with a new set of pins at the bottom. She dusted her suit and grinned at him, “ha you call that a-”  
She’s cut off when Paon tackles her and uses her as a surfboard to crash into the pins below, “you were saying?” he asks with a cheeky expression.  
Meanwhile with Chat he had to dodge random items that Host-kun would throw at him, these items included slime balls and rubber ducks. “This guy’s quacking mad” he states to no one in particular, laughing out loud when he sees how Paon’s bowling skills are.  
Host-kun growls in frustration, “Host-Chan let us join our powers” he calls to her. Host-Chan agrees and blasts Paon off her with the sound waves that emitted from her microphone.  
Paon lands with a splat next to Chat, who breathes in relief as the treadmill disappears. “We have to get our weapons back, but how?”  
Suddenly a rubber ball starts bouncing all over the place, knocking into the wall, the pins, the other wall, and then right into Host-kun’s hand smashing the mic to the ground. The energy surrounding their weapons drops and the boys hurry to grab them before they could be taken again.  
“Sorry guys this show is canceled” Ladybug calls jumping off the roof she was hiding on, the other girls flying close behind. “Get the ties” she orders to them.  
Host-Chan raises her mic and creates a giant stair case with the heroes at the bottom “Flying is against the rules” she snaps. The villains join hands and create some kind of energy blast that causes Bee and Volpina to crash to the ground. “Ow not fair” Bee whines.  
“Come on, we have to get to the top”  
Ladybug leads the charge to the stairs; a wall with a human cut out in it appears and makes its way towards them. She tries to simply jump though it and is literally shocked by it, getting knocked back towards the group.  
“I know this game, make the shape in the wall” Chat says helping Ladybug up, a new wall appears this one with a wonder women pose.  
Bee steps up to pass through the wall without complications and the others follow after. “This is getting really silly” Bee calls doing another ridiculous pose. In all they did at least two poses that required acrobatics, one that had ladybug and Chat in a dancing position while the others giggled in their much less close poses and one where Paon actually had to bring his leg up past his head. Ladybug took notice that he did so as if he had done that sort of thing before, but had other things to focus on.  
They stumble and slip on the stairs coated with slime but Ladybug manages to trap both hosts with her yo-yo once they reach the top.  
With the ties ripped by a tired Volpina, the set pieces vanish under thousands of lady bird beetles. Leaving two confused and tired twins in front of them “our deepest apologies” the boy says with a bow. The girl quickly recovering next with a bow of her own, “for whatever trouble we did” she finishes.  
Queen Bee and Volpina help the twins get back to their hotel, “I think we should call it a night” Ladybug states with a yawn. “Make that morning my lady” Chat says pointing to the sun starting to peek from the edge of town.  
Ladybug groans seeing no chance of catching sleep, she hears her earrings beep in warning. They give their goodbyes and just as bug was about to swing back home a voice calls up to her. “Ladybug please can you help me?”  
She sighs to release the frustration, looking down to see Nathanial’s mom looking like she had just run a marathon. “It’s my son, he was upset and I can’t find him” she claims holding her hands in front of her like a self-hug.  
“Mom I’m here” Nathanial calls turning out of an ally and running towards the frazzled women. Ladybug can’t help but smile watching the Nath try to calm his mother down, “don’t scare me like that” she hears among other things. A final beeping gets her to swing away in a hurry; she glances back and sees Chat making his way in the other direction, but no Paon in sight. “He really is fast” Ladybug comments to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got a few more small battles planned, a big one, and even a bit of the final already thought out. I even had the idea to write a spin off story of sorts staring Chloe, I think she would be fun to write.  
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thank you again for reading, commenting and leaving kudos.


	5. chapter five the bees knees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to do, but I got the first exam out of the way and have a little time before the next one. Tried to hit the shows level of shipping material but I do struggle with things like crushes and young romance, as I never experienced these things myself.

Chapter 5 the bees knees  
Chloe brings a hand to the newest accessory in her hair, a golden comb with a bee at its centre, running her hand though her hair for the thirtieth time that morning. As if she needed its cool metal to confirm the events of last night had actually happened. She would also religiously feel the spot in her bag where a certain fussy creature was hiding, stopping once she felt the bee vibrate angrily to be left alone. Seems that queen bees liked their beauty sleep almost as much as Chloe did, and if it wasn’t for the excitement Chloe would have been a heck of a lot crankier.  
To think that Chloe had nearly splattered Pollen under the weight of her books when she had first appeared, now they were a new superheroine. One that was so adorable in her outfit and could fly with pretty wings and…  
Chloe is brought out of her bubble for a moment when she hears the comments about the lady blog, or rather what she didn’t hear. Students were chattering right and left about the feathered hero: Paon, but were barely talking about Queen Bee enough to fill Chloe’s enormous ego. How annoying it was to have a secret identity, Pollen had made it clear her family could be in danger if the public eye knew, but that wasn’t what stopped Chloe’s tongue. The thought of people not trusting Queen Bee or ridiculing her for her past was something much worse than having her father or even the staff in danger. Not like Chloe hadn’t already done that too many times to even count, but this was all about new beginnings,” to go from the whiny chambermaid to the queen of the castle”. As Pollen had put it…and then immediately had to dodge a pillow Chloe had thrown from being compared to a chamber maid.  
She couldn’t take it anymore, Chloe runs to the nearest empty bathroom locks them in the stall. Then Chloe dumps the little bee out onto her lap, ignoring its cries of protest. “What’s going on Pollen, I thought you were going to make me a queen?” Chloe snaps puffing her cheeks out.  
Pollen rubs her eyes and mimics Chloe’s expression down to the pout, “you have a lot of work to do before you get any sort of respect from your subjects” her squeaky voice full of poise. “Besides, you remember today’s test?” Pollen adds looking at her nubs as if there were nails to look at.  
Chloe sighs “try to repair the damage done in the past to one peasant-I mean person” she ignores the eye roll Pollen gives her “how am I supposed to choose? Everyone already adores me and forgives any mistakes I may have made”.  
“Somehow I doubt that” Pollen deadpans opening up Chloe’s phone to look at class photos buried in selfies and snapshots. “If you can’t choose I’ll pick one for you” Pollen lazily flies out of Chloe’s reach when she tries to retrieve her precious device.  
“Here Ariel will do” Pollen states tossing the phone down to Chloe, narrowly preventing it from falling in the toilet.  
“Nathanial, no, no, no, I can’t do him” Chloe shakes her head furiously and makes an X with her arms. “There’s no way I could just walk up to him and talk” she adds putting the phone in her purse safe from harm.  
“Because you have a crush on him”  
Chloe’s face burns a brilliant red, “no I don’t” she snaps defensively.  
“Right you just keep that jacket because it looks nice” Pollen fires back with a smirk. Chloe looks ready to defend herself again but instead huffs loudly and points to her purse for Pollen to fly into. Indicating the conversation is over. “You know I’m right” Pollen can’t help but tease as she lands in the purses fluffy interior.  
“Have you seen it?”  
“Oh my god this is amazing”  
The two phrases were heard by Nathanial dozens of times as he headed to his classroom the next morning; word had gotten out fast about the new heroes in Ladybug’s flock. Alya had gotten some incredible shots from both akuma attacks yesterday, how she was able to get them was a mystery to him.  
Nathanial finds out the hard way that hearing so many talking about his other self was both anxiety inducing and thrilling all at the same time. So far he hadn’t heard any criticism towards Paon Bleu but he couldn’t help but to listen hard for any sign of it.  
The one responsible for the schools excitement: Alya was surrounded by the class. Making it difficult for Nath to get to his seat unnoticed, “Hey Nath have you seen the lady blog?” Nino decides to be the one to catch Nathanial trying to sneak through the crowd.  
“I don’t see why everyone is freaking out over Paon; I’m way more interested in Queen Bee” Chloe calls from her seat trying to get the attention for herself.  
“I’m just the reporter, not my fault people are loving Paon more” Alya responds innocently with a small smirk, rather enjoying seeing Chloe fail to hide her disappointment as she turned back to her phone in silence.  
Nathanial peeks at the lady blog on his own phone when he sits down, Duusu whispering from the bag to see it too. It was amazing that neither he nor Chat had noticed the young reporter, the ones from the game show battle had them seemingly posing for the camera, one after they were freed from the ropes and the other him posing to get through the hole in the wall. Nath had to admit he looked like a total show off with the bright colours on his costume to the effortless way he moved. It was mind blowing to think he had only found Duusu a few days ago; he puts the phone in bag for Duusu to look at.  
Course, since he had no choice but to stay with his dad in a few days. Getting out doing those sorts of things would be a lot tougher, Nath remembered bitterly.  
Chloe found her eyes wondering to the back of the class even after the teacher had begun the day, earning her a bang from the Ms. Mendeleiev’s ruler. Chloe growls in her throat softly more in irritation at herself rather than the cranky science teacher. What was her problem lately? First she couldn’t bring herself to toss the ratty old jacket; instead it lay hidden under her pillow in a crumpled heap. Now she keeps glancing at the damn tomato responsible for her dilemma, she had to do something about it or she’d be driven insane by her own actions. Not because she was giving Pollen the satisfaction of giving in to her demands, it was her choice 100 percent.  
So she waited, though the boring lecture she drummed her hands softly on the desk. Not listening to the teacher in the slightest, only returning to life once she hears the dismissal. Without really thinking she grabs hold of Nathanial’s shoulder when he walks past. Hearing him gasp in surprise made Chloe’s brain malfunction, causing whatever she wanted to say to jam in her throat.  
“Um Chloe is something wrong?” Nathanial asks trying unsuccessfully to free himself from her grip.  
Chloe finally realises what she’s doing and rips her hand off as if it was burned, her mind spinning with possible excuses. “Did you…uh want to come shopping with me today after school?” she says nervously tugging at her sleeves, “I-I mean Sabrina usually goes with me but I did say we should the other day and um…” she rambles thankful the class was empty. Did she just stutter?  
Nathanial pushes some of the hair out of his face, reveling a small scowl “how do I know this isn’t a trap?” not being able to help but think of how in the past she would set people up to be humiliated in a public place. And there was no way he would ever forget what she had done to him.  
Chloe shook her head “no, no I just wanted some company” she claims she places her hands on her hips in a defensive way, old habits do die hard. Chloe forces her body to release the tension building up by taking a deep breath, her heart beating a mile a minute wasn’t helping in the slightest.  
Nath traces his finger over the pin and loses the scowl when he feels Duusu banging his leg with her nubs. Silently but enthusiastically trying to get him to go. He looks back up at Chloe taking notice of the natural blush glowing underneath her foundation, and feels his own face copy the action.  
“Uh…yea, sure, just don’t be using me as a mule” He says at last, taken back at the surge of pride that flows through him as Chloe giggles softly at the joke.  
Nathanial watches Chloe leave the classroom to head to her locker, following soon after his face cools down slightly. Outside the classroom he catches several of his classmates pretending not to pay any attention to him, whistling to cover the giggling that escaped their lips.  
Nath ignores them and makes his way down the hall, not wanting to know what they were thinking.  
The ride over to the mall after classes was painfully awkward to say the least. They sat on opposite sides of Chloe’s fancy limo, and the driver had closed the window on them shortly after getting told their destination. Stating he was giving them some privacy, with a wink that made Chloe nearly explode in embarrassment. Oh he would be so fired if he wasn’t such a great employee, Chloe thinks with a small huff.  
“So um….” Chloe starts to break the silence “how’s that comic of yours coming along?” she makes an effort to turn her body to face him.  
“It’s doing fine” Nathanial replies quickly, “the story is still lacking and I still can never get the eyes right” he continues not finding any reason to keep it a secret. Chloe was likely to get bored of the subject and back out of the plan any minute now.  
“Is that why you always have your hair in your face? To make it easier to draw” Chloe asks with a laugh in her throat, her hand moved to brush some of his hair out of his eyes before she can stop it. Her heart threatened to leap out of her chest as she stares at his eyes. Hardened ice stared at beautiful sea green, like winter seeing summer for the first time. Nathanial stuttering something brings Chloe back to reality, and she jumps back to the other side of the seat, she didn’t even realise she was edging closer to him. Based off Nathanial shifting back as well, he didn’t either.  
“Just a coincidence” Nathanial repeats, turning to stare out the window in hopes to hide how red his face was getting, Chloe does the same.  
“Chloe I can’t shop here” Nathanial claims when they arrive, “these stores are way too expensive”.  
“As if I would willingly be seen in anything less than designer, besides if you see something you really like I’ll pay for it” Chloe offers waving her credit card playfully. “Come on let’s see what’s in style” Chloe adds grabbing Nathanial by the hand and pulling him with her into the building.  
They tried to shop seriously for a little while, Chloe gathering tons of clothing she liked for both herself and Nathanial. She booked a dressing room that came with a little catwalk so they could show themselves off without worry about dirty looks from store clerks.  
It was clear to Chloe that Nathanial was out of his element, when he came down the catwalk wearing a light blue shirt with white jeans he was as stiff as a board. “Come on Tomato it isn’t that bad” she commented after a while. She has found several outfits while Nathanial had chosen nothing.  
“Chloe these clothes cost about as much as rent does at home” Nath shoots back folding a shirt carefully as if the fabric would crumble in his hands.  
Chloe hummed trying to think of a solution, her test wouldn’t be complete if Nathanial didn’t have a good time. Not to mention she felt a tinge of guilt for bringing him here of all places. Chloe knows the mall inside and out and snaps her fingers when the lightbulb appears, “stay right there I’ll be right back” she orders running out to the front desk.  
Nathaniel sits on the edge of the catwalk silently watching staff take away the clothing he had rejected. Ignoring the cold looks that came from the more snooty members of the store. He shouldn’t have listened to Duusu, Chloe and him just didn’t work together. Speaking of Duusu she had been awful quiet in the bag throughout the fashion show. He was just about to peek in the bag to see if she had fallen asleep when Chloe walks back in.  
Chloe glows in excitement as she runs to her changing room with an outfit Nath doesn’t see, his curiosity rising as different staff members bring out bags of unknown materials and leave them scattered. “Ready and boom” Chloe cries throwing back the curtain and walking down to Nath wearing a small flowing black dress, a pair of cat eyes displayed on the front. She had also changed into some punk rock heels and had a hairband with cat ears on her head.  
“The store next door has a Ladybug and Chat Noir selection, what do you think?” she asks giving a twirl, the dress reveling red spots hidden underneath the skirt part.  
Nathaniel can’t stop the grin that makes its way on his face “looks pretty good” he comments loving the way Chloe lit up like a little girl being given ice cream. Chloe puckered up her lips and posed in a punk girl way in hopes of getting him to laugh. To her delight she succeeds, “Oh I got to try some of these” Nathaniel says digging though some of the bags.  
The shopping becomes a game of trying to get the other to laugh, Chloe would come out wearing some totally out of character clothing and pose in such a way that made Nath chuckle every time. In return he would come out with ripped jeans and a black T with some kind of Chat Noir pun on it; he even wore some gloves with fake claws on the tips. He meowed pretending to swipe at an unseen force.  
Nathanial was actually having fun, with Chloe of all people. He even allowed her to purchase a long sleeved shirt with colours that matched well with the peacock pin; thankfully the clothing from the other store was way more in his price range so he didn’t feel bad about letting Chloe pay for it. Chloe suggested after paying to head to the food court for some fries, to which he agrees following after her carrying his share of the bags.  
“Come on Sabrina usually carries them, besides aren’t you a strong man?” Chloe complains about having to carry a measly three bags.  
“I’m not Sabrina” Nathanial fires back in a teasing tone taking a bite out of a French fry, the salty food burning his chapped lips.  
Nath looks up in alarm as a “snap” from a phone taking a picture is heard; Chloe was smiling and typing away on her phone.  
“What was that?”  
“Don’t’ freak out I’m just snapchatting Sabrina, she says hi”  
Chloe sent the photo of Nathanial eating the ketchup covered French fry titled: “Cannibalism” receiving a snap back of Sabrina looking cartoonish surprized. The photo came with text that said: are you on a date?!?  
Chloe felt her face get a tad warm as she sends Sabrina her reply, they were simply enjoying the day together.  
Suddenly a beam of light hits Chloe in the head, Nathanial chokes on his food in surprise unable to warn her. He tries to force down a laugh, but it bursts out harder then he’s done in years. “What’s so funny?” Chloe asks in alarm feeling over her head to see if a hair was out of place. To her horror she finds her head was stretched and flat. Like a cartoon character getting their head squished by a piano, she stares at the reflection from her phone and screams trying to cover up her ridiculously sized head.  
“I’m sorry” Nathanial manages to say in between laughter, Chloe becoming frustrated at her companion’s lack of sympathy. Her attention is stolen by a girl dressed as a princess floating throughout the mall blasting people with a handheld mirror, changing their appearance slightly. The akuma was changing their clothes to something ridiculous or their bodies like she had done to Chloe’s head.  
A buzz from Pollen is all she needs, “Nath we have to get out of here” she cries starting to pick of her shopping.  
“Chloe look out!”  
Nathanial pushes her out of the way as the akuma charges them, smacking into him and crashing into a nearby display. “Mirror, mirror in my hand, I am the fairest in this land” the akuma chants pointing her weapon at him and firing. Nath doesn’t feel any pain thankfully and is able to get the akuma off using a ketchup bottle and squeezing its contents in her face. The akuma screamed as the red gunk wrecks her poofy pink dress, flying off him to attack more people.  
“Are you okay?” Chloe asks abandoning her bags to help Nath to his feet.  
“I’m fine, what did she do to me?” Nathanial responds checking his outfit and finding it unchanged, he looks up to Chloe in alarm unaware a pair of red cat ears had grown on the top of his head.  
Chloe sees the ears twitch in annoyance and muffles a giggle “nothing bad” she whispers, running off to the girl’s room to transform. Claiming she didn’t want anyone to see her until the spell wore off.  
“Okay Pollen stingers out”  
Nathanial follows the akuma to see if any of the other heroes had shown up yet, instead he finds himself covered by hundreds of black thorny vines. Nath is reminded of the ones in sleeping beauty, “guess this will do Duusu feather up”.  
“Mirror, mirror-“  
“That’s enough little girl, you’re in the presence of real royalty now” Queen Bee calls landing in front of the akumantized child. Her face had thankfully changed back to its original shape, making it possible to take her seriously.  
“Mirror, Mirror in my hand, destroy that bug where she stands” the akuma shouts and sends a blast of vines towards Bee. Queen Bee dodges and summons her weapon to her hands, a giant honey dipper with jewels on it to make it look like a sceptre. “Get ready to bee defeated” Bee calls swiping at the vines.  
A large chunk of the vines are sliced into salad to the left of them, reveling Paon spinning like a grass mower. Paon was totally stealing the show as he destroyed the vines that had trapped people underneath, landing elegantly beside a stunned Queen Bee.  
“Nice to see you again your highness” he purrs turning his attention to the akuma, his back feathers flickering to spin again.  
“Don’t steal my spotlight” Bee snaps flying to attack the little princess, if she could take down this akuma she’d get some attention for sure.  
Pretty princess blasts her back with more vines, turning her attention to the feathered hero who had flown down to assist some people out of harm’s way. “Mirror, Mirror big and bright, burn his feathers for my delight” the spell blasts waves of fire in Paon’s direction.  
Paon has time to move but he remains put, “now’s a good time to try this” he says to himself raising his arms up and behind his back. With a fan in each he flaps them forward the same way a bird would flap its wings  
“Royal Strike”  
His fans fly in front of him in an epic manner, but nothing happens. He looks at his fans in confusion, trying the motion again to no results.  
Bee grabs him seconds before the flames hit the area where he was standing, “something wrong bird boy?”  
Paon says nothing still utterly confused by his powers not working, he doesn’t even notice some onlookers squealing seeing him being carried like a princess by Queen Bee. She shoots the fans a wink than turns back to her target.  
“Now we could continue this dance till Ladybug gets here, or I could show you how the Queen does it” Bee calls as her weapon glows a soft yellow light. The akuma growls and fires at them. “Paon keep the vines off me, I’m getting her mirror” Bee commands circling around pretty princess.  
Paon nods and begins his spinning attacks that slice though the vines with ease, it looked as if he was dancing rather than fighting. His tail feathers must be sharper then they looked, as he used them just as much as he used the fans in his hands.  
“How dare you, I am royalty” the akuma whines as Bee grabs hold of her mirror, quickly turning into a game of tug a war.  
“There’s more to being a Princess then wearing a crown” Queen Bee fires back ripping the mirror from the akuma’s hands and shattering it on the floor.  
“What are you doing? The akuma” Paon shouts watching helplessly as the black butterfly starts to retreat into the sky.  
Queen bee smirks, taking her weapon and swinging it towards the butterfly  
“Honey trap”  
A blast of golden liquid coats the butterfly and stops it in place; Queen Bee holds her hand up to catch the now solid cube with the akuma trapped inside. “That’s my power, trap the akuma to prevent more damage until Ladybug can purify it” she explains with a shrug.  
The akuma turns back into a little girl wearing a more child-like version of the dress, the spells she cast disappeared leaving the people looking normal. But the damage was still very present. “We’ll find ladybug and have her fix this all up, so sorry for the delay” Queen Bee claims to an officer surveying the damage shortly after.  
A beeping from her comb reminds her she doesn’t have much time, she’s about to fly off and safely store the akuma when a hand grabs hers.  
“I’d say we make a good team your majesty, don’t leave just yet” Paon says holding his free fist out to her. With a small fan girl squeal queen bee frees a hand to gently hit his fist with her own, “pound it” they say in unison.  
“Hey sorry I’m late I was doing a thing across town and…” Ladybug trails off seeing the situation was contained, Queen Bee grins and hands her the trapped Akuma. “Pretty sweet isn’t it hon?”  
Ladybug nods with a small smile. With a flick of her yo-yo the damage from the akuma is reversed. With that done, all three say their goodbyes and part ways.  
“Chloe there you are” Nathanial calls running over to the blonde, Chloe was outside the mall playing on her phone surrounded by her bags.  
“Tomato head I was just trying to find your number on here” Chloe states clicking her phone off and putting it away. “Guess I don’t have it” she adds with a shrug.  
“Not like we really spoke with one another” Nath admits scratching behind his neck and yet another silence takes hold, neither looking the other in the eye.  
“Well let’s change that” Chloe blurts before she can stop herself, she grabs his phone sticking out of his back pocket and types in her info. “Oh and here’s your things” Chloe hands him the bag containing the shirt; Nathanial notices a black object in with it.  
“It’s a gift” Chloe claims as Nath holds up a black toque, “heh thanks” he says putting it on his head. Not noticing that the hat had two cat ears sewed on the top.  
“Yea it really suits you” Chloe says covering her mouth to hide her smile, Nath tilted his head to the side slightly in confusion but shrugs it off.


	6. dance with a demon

Chapter 6, dance with a demon  
Nathanial doesn’t even make it to his desk before the chaos begins the next morning, Rose and Juleka corner him outside the on the schools front steps. “I didn’t think you had it in you, congrats Nath” Rose coos giving him a friendly hug, Juleka giggles at Nathanial’s obvious confusion.  
“What are you guys talking about?” he asks looking like a lost puppy, which only adds to their giggling.  
“Aw you sly dog, stealing the heart of dear Chloe and playing it off like it’s no big deal” Rose teases cradling her hands to her cheek in a silly but cute pose.  
“Yea if anyone could thaw that girl’s heart it would be you” Juleka adds with an almost proud smile on her face.  
“Huh….Chloe and I?” it takes a moment to click “no it’s nothing like that” Nath cries waving his arms to form an X in front of him. “What made you guys think that in the first place?” he can’t help but ask and gets a phone shoved in his face. On it Rose shows a series of pictures of Chloe and Nathanial at the mall yesterday, Nath has to admit it looks like more than two friends hanging out. There was even a video of them eating fries together and Nath pushing Chloe out harm’s way as the akuma flies in.  
“You saved her like a shining knight, so romantic” Rose coos putting her phone away, Juleka giving her a nudge to indicate to head inside now.  
“You guys were spying on us?”  
“Per coincidence, we just wanted to make sure you were okay” Juleka calls entering the school, poking her head out a second later “You are alright yes?”  
Nathanial sighs “Yes I’m fine” putting his hand to his head and groaning loudly when Juleka leaves his sight. His fingers brush against fabric on his head, he was still wearing the cat eared toque much to his utter delight.  
The rest of the day isn’t much different; people would either stare or giggle in his direction. So much so that Nath had put his head down and pretended to sleep to try and block them out. Faking turns to doing and the next thing he knows a teacher is banging a book by his head.  
“I’ve got a few late nighters today. Either stay awake or head to the principal’s office” the teacher snaps referring to the five secret super heroes all in varying stages of exhaustion. Not that anyone knew that was the reason, the end of the day couldn’t come soon enough.  
“Maybe we should suggest to Ladybug to go on shifts each night rather than all at once, this keeps up you’ll never be able to stay awake in class” Duusu says on the lunch break, Nath had started to sketch out something but the drawing was noticeably sloppy. His mind clearly on something else, with his phone buzzing like crazy Duusu had a good guess on what the issue was. Her holder was trying his best to ignore the devices constant buzzing, but curiosity ate away at him till he gave in with an annoyed huff. Most if not all the messages were from classmates, warning him or teasing congratulations. He scrolls through the phone until he sees an unfamiliar number starting back at him. Chloe’s number. Although it would add fuel to the fire most likely he decides to send her a simple text message.  
{This is Nathanial, is this happening to you as well? }br /> A minute passes then he feels a singular buzz back. {If you mean the whole school talking about us like we’re some sort of celebrity couple, than yes.}  
Nath sighs wondering if the whole thing would just blow off in a few days, he closes the textbook he was using to keep the paper inside steady and tosses it to the other side of the bench. A cry of pain makes him look up in confusion, turns out someone else was sitting on the bench with him. A girl with tanned skin and brown hair, Nath recognized her as the new student from Italy but her name escapes him. In good news it didn’t seem like she had seen or heard Duusu, so she must have appeared recently.  
“Watch where you’re throwing things” she commands with a cold glare, holding her affected side like she had been shot. Nath tries to apologise but the girl ignores him in favour of opening his textbook and shuffling though the pages, “oh so you’re the artsy type, me too”.  
Nath raises a brow not following the conversation, the girls eyes shifted from cold to a mischievous warm was off-putting at best. “My drawings have been in contests all over the globe” the girl brags flipping her hair and giving him a foxy smile.  
“Oh, uh… cool” Nath says at last, wishing she would give him back his book and leave. Her name was like a flower right? Rose? No that was taken, iris? Didn’t ring a bell, lily…Lilith…Lila! That was her name.  
Apparently Lila had kept talking while he was thinking, because now she was smiling expectedly at him. He scratches at his neck in embarrassment having totally missed the conversation, “Sorry what were you saying?”  
“Mind if I steal you for a moment?” a new voice from beside them comes in before Lila could react, Chloe stands in front of them with a grouchy look on her face. The two girls glare at each other so harshly Nath swears he feels the temperature heat up five degrees. Chloe doesn’t even wait for an answer and grabs Nathanial by the hand and yanks him away from the bench, thankfully he still had his bag around his waist. Duusu calmly eating her share of sandwich inside, oblivious to the drama outside.  
Chloe never says anything, despite Nat’s several attempts to ask her what was wrong. She leads them to a quiet corner of the school and places him with his back to the wall, all she had to do was put her arms on either side of him and he’d be trapped. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have thought she was attempting to flirt. “You do know Lila is a liar right? You can’t talk to her” Chloe snaps putting one hand on her hip, the other jabbed the redhead’s shoulder.  
“What does it matter to you if I talk to her?” Nath spits his words out with more venom then he would have liked. “It’s not any of your business” he adds narrowing the distance between them. Maybe it was from being tired, or the stress of living two life’s but his usual preference for personal space goes out the window as the two were only a kiss apart. He could smell her cotton candy lip balm; she could see the tiny freckles that painted his face.  
“It’s my business if I don’t want to see you being manipulated by that snake” Chloe fires back forcing herself to keep her gaze on his eyes and not on his lips, her traitorous eyes still sneak a peek.  
Nathanial hands shake into fists, but the action shocks him back into reality and he forces them to relax. He wasn’t going to be his dad, he was better than that. “Well you could have at least waited for me to get my textbook back” he says as calmly as he could manage, the words releasing tension from him with each breath.  
Chloe takes a step back to put the two at an arms distance, why did she have to pull him away like that? She just saw him with Lila and then red, (or was it green?) “Sorry, uh…yea you sh-should go do that” she stutters out turning and walking away, leaving Nathanial with a sentence stuck in his throat. He puts an arm out as if to call after her to come back, but no sound other than breathing leaves him. He watches the hall Chloe had disappeared into for a moment, then heads back in hopes that his book would still be on the bench.  
At the end of the day Nath had his book back and a group project to do in two weeks; normally he would have worked with Ivan to do these sorts of things. But the tall as hell tenth grader stated he would be working with another group, leaving Nath, Chloe and Lila the only students without a group. Which meant they’d be working together whether they liked it or not. If that wasn’t enough bad news his mom had sent a message via text to let him know the exact dates he’d be with his dad, which started after school. The final sour cherry on top was when he overheard Marionette squealing to Alya that Adrian had asked her to be his partner, Old feelings boil uncomfortably in his gut when he hears the news. Marionette truly only had eyes for Adrian, he knew this, he was over this. Still, disappointment licked at his heart as the last coal of hope turns cold.  
Nathanial is silently packing a small backpack with clothing, toiletry items, and his schoolbooks. Duusu was taking a well-deserved nap on a make shift bed she had created with clothing on the floor, he sits down next to her to pet her gently. The smile he has falls off when he hears a honking outside; a familiar in your face sports car was waiting out front. With no more than a sigh he picks up his bag and his little bird, putting her in his jacket pocket this time. Downstairs his mom waits with a somber expression, they exchange in a quiet hug and Nathanial makes his way to the father waiting outside.  
“Evening Nath, looking forward to a week with your big man” Ralph speaks in between puffs of his cigar, the question sounding more like a command. Nathanial nearly blurts a “yes sir” but holds his tongue and simply nods quietly. Duusu gags quietly waking up from her nap, the stench in the car was nearly overwhelming especially to a bird.  
Duusu peeks out when she feels Nath get out of the car, the house he was approaching was huge compared to the one she had grown used to. The dark stone it was built with giving it a cold but castle like feel, maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.  
Inside the walls are dark, covered with animal heads or shelves with trophies. Not a single photo to be found unless you counted the posters in what must have been the office, and of course there was a faint stink of smoke in the air. Ralph could indulge in these things being the successful lawyer that he was, showing off his achievements in attempt to give the house personality.  
“Okay let’s see what ya brought” Ralph grabs the backpack off Nath ignoring his cry of protest, unceremoniously dumping the contents onto the couch.  
“It’s just clothes and stuff, nothing special” Nath claims trying to grab what had fallen, just as Ralph pulls out a crumbled piece of paper hidden in one of the pockets. Duusu feels his body tense as Ralph opens the page and sneers at it. On the paper was an old sketch of Paris’s biggest hero, Ladybug. One Where Nath had had a little fun and gender bended her to become the red bird beetle. Duusu remembered complimenting him on how cool it looked.  
“I see what Cal was talking about, this is well done” Ralph says after a moment flattening out the page, the action causing Nathanial to release a breath he didn’t’ realise he was holding. The atmosphere changing in an instant as his hair stands on edge at the smile Ralph puts on, one a sadistic cat would do seconds before ripping the head off a bird.  
“No need to do any of that crap anymore” and with that Ralph rips the paper into shreds, tossing the scraps into the garbage. “I’ll see you later, I got…work to do” Ralph says turning round and heading back out the front door, leaving Nath to pick up his bags contents alone.  
With the coast clear Duusu flies out of his pocket, trying her best to help by picking up a scattered pencil and holding it up for him. “Thanks Duusu, I’m sorry if you heard any of that” Nath picks up his bag and takes the pencil from her.  
“I thought that man was a stinker and man was I right” Duusu comments flying over to the trash and trying to lift the lid, Nath stops her and puts her on his shoulder.  
“Don’t worry about it, that picture was old anyway” Nathanial says in an unconvincing way, but Duusu knows better than to argue. She also knew Nath was eager to transform as soon as possible, so she didn’t waste energy crying over a drawing. Still she wishes she knew why his dad was like this, they looked so happy in the photo so what had happened? Nathanial seems to read her mind and leads them to a simple but large bedroom and sits on the bed with black blankets.  
“It’s just how my dad is, he doesn’t want me, what he wants is a Ralph junior” Nath explains fiddling with his hands in his lap. “So he just uses me to hurt mom” he adds so quietly Duusu almost doesn’t hear him. It wasn’t the full story not even close, but Duusu is thankful he revealed as much as he did.  
Duusu feels a strange sense of empathy towards the artist, but she can’t remember why. She flies up to give his forehead a kiss in a way a mother would, “there’s a reason why my miraculous sits closest to the heart-“she smiles softly “I’m the kwami of emotion, so I know your heart will never be as cold as Ralph’s” The words as cheesy as Italian pizza but they make Nathanial feel slightly better, “now let’s get ready for tonight”.

Later that evening in a small shop in a quiet part of town, a young woman cleans up from the day’s work, gathering dust and inspecting the stores merchandise for damage. Her broom accidentally bumps an array of spooky wooden mask sending them to the floor; she gasps and picks them up. Sighing in relief that they weren’t damaged, she was just about to put the last one back up when her phone buzzes with a text. Curious she opens it to reveal a photo taken by her friend, or at least she used to be. The photo had her much prettier friend kissing the women’s boyfriend right on the lips. Along with the words ~guess you’re single now LOL~ the cruel truth crushing the poor woman’s heart.  
“That two faced creep, I trusted you, I trusted both of you” she sobs in the empty store, a single darkened butterfly crashes and absorbs into the mask she held in her hands.  
“How horrible it is to never see the dark sides of people before it is too late, Shadow mask I offer you the power to destroy your enemies with their own demons. In return I ask of you to bring me the ring and earrings of Ladybug and Chat Noir”  
“Whatever you say” and the woman is covered by the akuma’s purple slime.  
“There’s been an awful lot of akuma attacks lately, you sure there’s another one?” Chat says with a yawn, looking over at an equally tired ladybug and Volpina. Queen Bee had yet to show up and Paon was sitting cross legged with his eyes closed, how lucky for them that it wasn’t a school night.  
“According to the lady blog there’s a strange figure flying around this part of town as we speak” Volpina replies thankful her blog allowed others to report whenever an akuma appeared. She stands on an air conditioner to her right trying to spot the akuma, giving a huff of frustration when nothing comes to sight.  
“Maybe it was a false alarm, I don’t see-“ Ladybug starts looking to her sides, gasping in surprise as a blob of black goo lands at her feet “anything?” the goo jiggles creates a visible black shockwave that hits all but Volpina since she was too high for it to reach.  
The three heroes go flying across the rooftop landing on their backs from the blast, groaning in varying amounts of pain. The glob floats into the air and shifts into a human shape, it laughs in a horrible manner as it comes to solid form. The akuma body was humanoid but had an extra set of arms, its face hidden behind a simple wooden mask with a smiling face on it. She had several other masks attached to her head each with its own expression carved into them.  
“The darkness that lies within, the doubt and fear, surrender the miraculous and I’ll spare you from their torment” Shadow mask says in an echoing voice, the mask’s lips remaining still.

“Not happening akuma” Ladybug snaps spinning her yo-yo in a fighting stance, Chat and Paon following with stances of their own.  
“Ladybug behind you” Volpina cries, Ladybug turns in confusion to see three more blobby shadows behind them, the shadows shift and bubble. Like looking in some sort of distorted mirror another ladybug forms from the goo, but her outfit was entirely black and there was an evil look in its eyes. To her left was a Chat Noir clone but his outfit was white instead of black. The Paon clone remained black and gooey as if it hadn’t decided on its form yet. Shadow masks head cracks and the masks shift to the angry one  
“GET THEM”  
The original’s and fakes charge each other, starting off an array of close hand combat that matched their styles to a T. The goo Paon grabs the real one by the shoulders and forces them to fall off the building to streets below, Paon groans from the fall and watches the fake start to approach him.  
Chat calls out to Paon but is too busy with Chat Blanc to help him; Volpina had her hands tied with shadow mask and ladybug with her own demon. He hopes peacocks have as many lives as cats do as he dodges the claws of his double. “Even with all the freedom of Chat Noir you still hold back” the akuma growls bringing out his version of the staff. Chat does the same and the two engage in a sword fight using the batons. Sweat forms on his brow as they battle; the double fought dirty and knocked him to the floor “why do we let our father use us as a pretty doll and ladybug a means to her success?” it hisses throwing a punch to chat’s head.  
Chat takes the punch to his lip but doesn’t cry out, spending energy to flip the fake off him instead “don’t even try that with me, I’ve already faced a copy chat” he was creeped out by his voice coming out with such venom from Blanc not letting it show as he wipes the tiny bit of blood of his face.  
“Oh but that’s where your wrong little Chat-“Blanc purrs barring his sharp fangs, “-I’m not some wannabe ladybug fan boy, I’m what you wish you could be” he gets on all fours and pounces on Chat. Pinning his arms to the ground, “the part that wants to destroy all those who hurt us” he whispers with sinister intent. Chat struggles to get the copy off him, it was if the copy had gotten stronger “and hawk moth could give us the strength to do it, so give up Adrian” Blanc’s face shifts into a smile that was far too large for a human to hold as Chat freezes hearing his civilian name.  
“I’m the voice that screams you can’t Marionette, how can a clumsy girl be Paris’s savior?” The fake ladybug snapped taking advantage of the stunned ladybug and sending her into a rail on edge of the roof. “I’ve been in your head, there’s nothing I don’t know” it hisses softly. Ladybug shakes off her confusion and slams the fake with a well-placed punch to the face.  
“Even if you know everything you can’t make me give up being ladybug” Ladybug cries throwing another fist, this one is blocked and she’s thrown into the rail again.  
“I’ll be sure mummy dearest sees your strangled corpse” the fake hisses and its face distorts, eyes turning into vertical slits that glowed white from within.  
Volpina thanks whatever logic that allowed her to fly, with Shadow mask constantly firing blobs of black goo at her she couldn’t risk giving herself to gravity. The akuma’s face shifts to the smiling one again, it unnerved the fox hero to the core how there seemed to be no head behind the masks.  
“I won’t even bother finding your dark side, you’re already impersonating an akuma” Shadow mask says with a laugh, Volpina aches to smash her flute across the creature’s face.  
“I am not an akuma stupid, I’m the real deal” she spits out flying in close to attack the four armed beast with her boots. The attack wasn’t well thought out as the akuma easily grabs her leg in the air and spins her down to crash on the rooftop below.  
“Yet you call yourself by the same name as the brat that dangled a boy off the Eiffel tower” Shadow mask fires back summoning four shadow blobs in each hand. She tosses them down at Volpina who backflips out of the way, the shadows exploding upon impact. With a growl Volpina shoots up at Shadow, using her flute as a bat to hit any shadows back at Shadow mask.  
“Look at you, it’s been a while hasn’t it” the creature purrs completing his shifting, black and white shirt, red hair with purple tips, a pen and tablet on his arms. Paon finds himself staring down his akumantized form, the Evilistrator. Paon gets to his feet and summons his fans ready to fight, but the akuma just laughs at him. “Pretending to play hero? Isn’t that precious” the Evilistrator coos using his tablet to erase the fans from Paon’s hands. The akuma moves fast and hits Paon into the wall “you have always been a disappointment Nathanial” he hits Paon with a fist “not good enough for daddy, a waste of time to your friends and a joke to Marionette” he throws punch after punch into the feathered boy’s stomach. The Evilistrator steps back to let Paon slide down the wall, revealing cracks that had formed from the force of the punches.  
“What are you doing Nath? Do you seriously think you deserve to be a hero?” It snaps “Look at what happened to the first hero” he gestures to himself “just another puppet for hawk moth”. Paon says nothing holding his hands on his stomach with his eyes shut tight, the Evilistrator growls feeling ignored and picks Paon up by the neck.  
“Give up Nathanial, let’s become one again” the Evilistrator purrs losing his sinister tone for a moment, “we’ll take the Ladybug and Chat noir down together”.  
Paon knows this tone too well, the pleading voice his dad used to force him to quit ballet, a false kind of caring. A bubble of anger burns in him and Paon spits in the face of the Evilistrator. “Never” he hisses between clenched teeth.  
The akuma roars in anger and smashes Paon into the wall again, deepening the cracks made with each strike. Paon can hardly make a sound as he’s finally smashed though the solid concrete wall, his head spinning from the beating.  
“You can’t even activate your powers, you are a failure” the Evilistrator stomps over and rips the pin off of Paon, forcing him to transform back into Nathanial. “Go back to being the pathetic little dreamer at the back of the class” he stomps on Nathanial’s chest, laughing in delight when the boy doesn’t fight back.  
Nathanial barely registers the beating his body is enduring, the copies words ringing loudly in his head. They were his own words, his thoughts in his down moments, and they hurt being said by his own voice twisted with hatred.  
Chat growls in frustration as he fights against his double, his swings getting clumsier the longer the battle went on. He spares a moment to check on ladybug, seeing her running towards him with her akuma close behind. “Chat let’s change dance partners”  
“As you wish my lady” Chat purrs catching ladybug and swinging her towards Blanc knocking him over, he continues the swing until it hits the other copy too. “Just save the last dance for the two of us” he adds with a flirty grin, to which Ladybug smirks and turns her attention to the stunned Chat Blanc. Turning the tables on the akuma as Ladybug had fought Chat enough times to easily block or attack the copy. Chat managing to disable the ladybug clone with a cataclysm to her yo-yo, which burned her hands to little nubs. Blanc roars like a wild cat and his body lights up in a white fire, his body taking on the appearance of a cougar made of fire.  
“Lucky charm”  
With a flash of light a red and black spotted water gun falls into the hands of ladybug, “I think you’re going to need more water than that” Chat comments.  
Ladybug looks around trying to form a plan, she spots Volpina struggling to dodge the shadows that shadow mask was firing at her. “It’s not for him, keep them busy chat” Ladybug orders wishing she didn’t have to leave her partner to face two alone, so she had to move fast.  
With careful aim ladybug fires at the shadows, they hiss and melt away from the water. “Demons and water don’t mix, especially when it’s holy water” she explains helping Volpina get close to shadow mask. Her mask switches to a sad one and just as quickly back to the angry one, “how dare you” she growls.  
Shadow mask gets hit directly with the holy water, and screams something awful as her faces spin out of control. “Kill them, kill them” her voice bounces from high to low and demonic, and the ladybug and chat clones abandon the black cat to attack the girls.  
“I thought that would stop them, where are these shadows coming from?” Ladybug cries in alarm using her yo-yo to tangle and smash a group of smaller shadows,  
The Evilistrator steps back from Nath once more, “you know what, I’m not you anymore” he smirks and tears the tablet from his wrist, smashing it to bits. “I’m more than your dark side, I was the one who fluttered into that pen of yours that fatal day” he adds transforming his arm into a sharp sword. His face flashes between normal and that of a jack o lantern, laughter escaping its glowing light.  
Nath looks at the akuma confused, “but that butterfly was purified” he states in between large gasps of breath.  
“Sometimes we enjoy that power so much we fly right back, hawk moth has no idea what he’s playing around with” the Evilistrator explains his sword gleaming off the moonlight.  
Nathanial sees Duusu lying beside him with dust on her cheeks, his bones feel broken and it’s hard to breath. Staring at the kwami looking so helpless sets a spark in Nath; he spots the peacock miraculous on the ground thrown carelessly by Evilistrator. The akuma raises the sword and brings it down aiming for the neck, but he’s stopped by Nath standing up suddenly and grabbing hold of the arm.  
“You’re right, I’m not you” Nath uses what strength he had left to push the Evilistrator off balance, while he’s recovering Nath grabs the pin off the ground. Duusu flying towards him feeling the courage pouring off of him, “I’m not Ralph junior, I’m not Marionettes leftovers and I’m not a failure”.  
The Evilistrator lunges again only for Nath to grab the sword again, fear flashes on the akuma’s face as Nath smirks. “I am Paon Bleu” he shouts with new found confidence, pausing for half a second as his pin begins to glow neon blue. A phrase appears in his mind, and escapes his lips like a firework  
“Duusu Feathers out”  
Nathanial’s body is enveloped in a bright blue light, swirling with white and green sparks. The Evilistrator screams in pain as his arm burns in the powerful magic, far away Hawk moth screams as well. He could feel the hidden akuma’s darkness burning up on the peacock pin, nearly erasing it entirely.  
The transformation plays as normal, with Nath “painting” the suit on his arms, a swish of hips sends the grand tail feathers out. A new fan appearing in his hand to cover his face then snapping back to reveal a now navy blue mask, his bangs were also pulled back into a ponytail behind his head, the elastic sporting a peacocks crest on the top. When the light shimmers down you could see how the suit reflected in the moonlight, giving it the appearance of feathers.  
The akuma cowers holding his elbow where the sword ended, now it was ashes in the wind. Paon Bleu towers above him chest out in pride, “and I’m so much more than that” he adds picking up the akuma and throwing him in the air. Paon pulls his fans back and arches his back, the fans light up with a blue and green energy, and he thrusts them forward.  
“Royal Strike”  
A loud crack distracts ladybug from the fight at hand, a warm summer breeze blows her pigtails softly. She turns back to her akuma and sees it’s reacting to the wind differently; the akuma was crouched down holding onto the floor and yowling in pain. Chat Blanc was facing a similar situation, the white fire burning out and a look of pain on his face. Ladybug turns to her teammates who shrug in equal confusion; the akuma’s dissolve into black dust and are blown away. Volpina points at one above them who had taken the full force of the attack, the blackened figure had been torn in two before dissolving like the others.  
Shadow mask screams in horror, her focus on the scene in front of her prevents her from seeing the yellow ball coming her way. With a well-placed kick Queen Bee destroys all the masks around her head in a fluid motion, the holy water had weakened them to the point a high heel slit though them like butter.  
“Yahoo, I did it” Queen Bee cheers doing a cute victory dance in the air, “Bee the victim!” Ladybug cries watching as the akumantized girl starts to fall off the building, Bee gasps and hurry’s to catch her while ladybug and Volpina catch the butterfly. Volpina creating a fly swatter illusion to slap the butterfly into ladybug’s reach. Chat on the other hand had jumped off the building, caught the women with one hand and used his staff to stop them by holding it horizontally and pinning them in between buildings. Queen Bee close behind to help them both to the ground safely.  
“Sorry I’m late, I got caught up at a family dinner” Bee apologizes to everyone when she flies up back to the others.  
“That’s fine Bee just don’t make a habit of it” ladybug dismisses with a small tired smile, “Where’s Paon?” she asks realizing he wasn’t with them.  
They turn towards a whoosh behind them and turn to see Paon grinning but wobbling on his feet, Bee flies over to catch him before he falls down. “Whoa loving the suit Paon, did you change your hair?” she says with honest interest.  
“I think so” is the tired reply.  
“Bee take Paon as close as you can to his place, Chat and Volpina you take this woman back home” Ladybug takes charge as leader and the rest of the team agree with no trouble. They understood that Ladybug had little time to get home after cleaning up an akuma attack, so she had to go home first. Silently Ladybug and Chat wonder if anyone had heard their copies call them by their real names, but if the other didn't bring it up then it would remain a mystery for the night.  
“Wish I saw what happened, you’re going to have to tell me all about it next time” Bee says putting Paon down on the street where he requested, good thing he was at his dads right now or Bee may have suspected something.  
Paon chuckles “yea I don’t really know what happened but it felt amazing” he claims hearing his pin beep giving its fifth and final warning.  
Bee feels a pout forming realizing she has to wait, but keeps her royal highney in check and remains neutral. Seeing Paon stand up straight she notices he had grown taller, now slightly above her in height. Not to mention incredibly attractive, the thought makes Queen Bee’s face warm against the cool night. “See you later Paon Bleu” she squeaks out waving awkwardly, what was with her and redhead’s lately?  
“Till we meet again my Queen” Paon says stepping off the box she had accidentally put him on. Paon makes it to his bedroom without Ralph turning away from the TV, he had clearly been on a beer run, and was surrounded by the foul liquid, his transformation falls away the second he closes the door. A very stressed out Duusu appears from the light, “how did I get the phrase mixed up?” she’s muttering to herself.  
Nath hands her a sandwich he had stashed and she eats in between outward thinking, he keeps quiet feeling far too pooped to realise the situation they were in. Duusu paces back and forth in the air for a few moments then her eyes fall on her holder, instincts kicking in and she stops her pacing to assist Nath to the bed. He doesn’t even hit the pillow before he’s fast asleep, Duusu sighs watching him breath evenly. Allowing it to relax her enough to focus clearly on what she had to do, she makes sure the blanket is covering him properly and makes her way to the window on the other side of the room.  
“I’ll be back soon” she whispers to the sleeping boy.  
“How did you get the phrase incorrect? Now the akuma is nearly dead” Hawk moth growls releasing the kwami from his miraculous. Stress almost cracking his stern cold mask he wore as his face, his mind racing with ideas to either fix or abandon the plan.  
“I had to change it slightly so you could have control, I didn’t realise he would find the real one activating the miraculous properly” Nooroo defends himself keeping his distance from the cold designer. “I’ve messed with Duusu’s memories enough that she shouldn’t have any idea why, but she could be learning why as we speak” he adds terrified he was going to be hit like the insect that he was.  
“Desperate times call for desperate matters” Gabriel announces turning his back to walk to the edge of his little butterfly sanctuary, from afar the place looked to be a simple dome with a large window at the top. But with a simple tap to a part of the wall revealed a room full of feeders and a singular butterfly in cased in glass, its wings were white with dark purple streaks for veins. It remained motionless until Gabe touches the glass, which makes its wings flutter to life.  
“Hello old friend, what brings you to me today?” a sickening sweet voice purrs from the butterfly’s direction despite it having no mouth to speak.  
“I have a job for you, and I am willing to pay your price”  
“My freedom or no deal”  
Gabe goes tense knowing full well what he would be releasing on his city, so he had to choose his words carefully so there still was one in the morning. “I will release you to corrupt the holder of the peacock miraculous, and you are only to harm the peacock holder” he says in his usual business voice.  
“I accept”  
Gabe takes the glass off the butterfly, and winces slightly as the butterfly spasms in pain and a leg rips out of its body. Eight legs in all pull themselves out of the insect’s body, a black and purple spider emerging from its corpse. Gabe watches it crawl away silently, disappearing though the butterfly window even though Gabe thought he had closed it.  
“I hope you’re prepared face your actions” Nooroo whispers dreading the effects the spider would have now that it was free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been looking forward to this chapter, took me forever to write so I hope it come out good.  
> In case anyone's curious, I had the shadow akuma's faces change to jack o lanterns based off the tradition of carving a face of a demon in a pumpkin to scare off the real ones. You'd be a little unnerved to see your face carved into a fruit so I thought it was a nice touch.  
> In the meantime season 2 has finally come out, or at least episode one has, and it's about as much fun as I hoped it would be. Of course I will have to accept that my fic will crumble from the cannons but I must remind myself that there are thousands of fanfics that are amazing despite the show going a different way. Nathaniel might never get the peacock miraculous in cannon, after all he is just a background character. The price I pay for having my favorite character basically be tree three in a school play,  
> Anyway now I should get back to my studies, hoped you enjoyed and thanks for reading.


	7. The grand switch-a-roo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a filler chapter, decided to have a little fun while I tried to write the more important chapters. I've got like three mega important scenes and I don't know what chapter to put them in, hopefully I'll figure it out soon enough. for now enjoy a classic swap of miraculous chapter

Chapter 7 the grand switcharoo  
Nathanial woke the next morning to the sound of his dad shouting something in German towards the TV, Nath sits up to rub the sleep from his eyes and drags a hand through his hair. Crying out in pain when it jams and catches some of his hair, confused he untangles his locks and discovers a silver ring on his ring finger. He turns it in confusion not remembering where it had come from.  
“You think you’re confused, I don’t know what’s going on either” a tired voice calls from above him, Nath looks up to see a tiny black cat kwami staring back at him.  
“Wait what….are you?”  
“Chat Noir’s kwami, Plagg at your service” the cat says with dripping sarcasm seeping into his voice, “now more importantly, you got any cheese?”  
Nathanial doesn’t answer him, “so if you’re here-“he opens his jacket to confirm the peacock pin was gone “-where’s Duusu?”

“Oh no this is bad, this is bad” Duusu chants flying all over Adrian’s room, Adrian was watching the panicked bird patiently while fiddling with the peacock pin on his shirt. Wondering what kind of akuma was behind this, he also had a feeling he had seen the pin before somewhere. A huge sneeze shakes him from his thoughts, so when next to Paon he was fine but now his feather allergies were acting up. Great, just what Adrian needed on top of all the modeling things he had to do today.  
“Calm down for a minute, this will probably go back to normal as soon as the akuma is taken care of” Adrian calls to the little bird, Duusu pouts and flies right at his face. 

“I know that it’s what I was doing before the switch”

“And that was…?”

“I can’t remember I just know it was important so why can’t I remember?”

“Can’t help you there” Adrian mumbles putting his hand behind his neck, “Let’s just head out for now okay?” he offers his hand to the distressed kwami who sits on it with an audible plop, her dusty feathers making Adrian sneeze again. 

“Oh my god you’re a holder? Good thing mine isn’t here she’d totally flip” says a little fox laughing at the girl below her tear through her room. 

“It’s nice to meet you too but I have to find Tikki” Marionette cries taking deep breaths trying to calm down, “Without Ladybug there’s no way to purify the akuma”.

“Relax my holder probably has her, looks like you’re Volpina for the day” Trixx giggles flying down to hold up the necklace bouncing on Marionette’s chest, laughing again as she goes through another bouncy freak out dance.

“No way this is so cool, I get to be Ladybug” Alya squeals bouncing up and down in front of the stressed kwami “wait this is the perfect scoop I could interview you for my blog”.

“Not happening” Tikki deadpans wondering how Marionette was taking this, knowing her, not very well.

“No way am I being a turtle, I am a queen you know” Chloe snaps with her back turned to the little kwami, dressed in a silky nightgown and dressing up her face and hair. “Pollen was going to help me get ready for my group coming over to work on our project today” she grumbled trying a crystal earring and tossing it aside. “And it’s not to impress tomato head I want to show Lila who the boss is”.  
“I didn’t ask” Wayzz states quietly, wishing he could have been swapped with anyone else.  
“Pollen, it is nice to see you again” Master Fu says while brewing his morning tea, the bee in question giving a small greeting of her own.  
“Wayzz could use the exercise, I’m sure he’ll be fine” he adds for his own benefit adding leaves while the water boils. “Looks like you’ll be staying with me today” he jokes trying to put the bee comb into his thin gray hair. Pollen grabs it before it could hit the ground, “I guess a break isn’t bad, but Chloe is going to be lost without me”.  
Master Fu’s features stiffen as he sets the tea down “Duusu disappeared before we could find what was wrong with her, I hope she’s alright” he glances at a piece of paper curled up at the end of the table. “Come. Have a seat” he gestures to the opposite chair for his guest to sit on, which was a simple red pillow on the floor.  
“Your dad has good taste in cheese” Plagg hums stuffing his face with stinky feet cheese, ignoring Nathanial’s look of disgust.  
“Keep it down would you, it’s going to be hard enough to explain why all the cheese is gone, I don’t need you attracting attention” Nathanial scorns nudging the cat gently back into his bag. The cat practically purring as he licks his paws to get every drop of cheese, loving the featherbed Nath had created for Duusu in a pocket in his bag. They were making their way over to Chloe’s father’s hotel where thanks to phone technology; they had planned to start on the project. Nathanial wouldn’t be surprized if he ended up doing all the work while the girls got into a cat fight, course he wouldn’t be able to work that much without knowing if Duusu was okay. As soon as the akuma revealed itself, he was going after it, no matter how exciting it was being Chat Noir for the day. Nath had to focus on getting her back safe and sound. To avoid issues he had placed the ringed hand in his pocket to cover him in case the real Chat Noir noticed his miraculous.  
“Hey Nathanial, fancy seeing you there” Lila calls appearing out of nowhere to throw her arm around the startled artist.  
“Well we are working together, did you forget?”  
Lila jumps back slightly offended, “no I was just…”  
“Good morning guys, I got a room cleared out for us to work” a sing song voice cuts Lila off. Chloe comes skipping down the steps wearing her usual outfit, with the tacky bracelet hidden underneath her shirt for the time being. “Come on no time to waste” she adds quickly walking behind Nathanial and leading him to the doors, turning to give Lila a sneer. Lila growls slightly in challenge but follows the two without a word.  
Two hours later, Lila wanted to explode in frustration. Ever since she showed up in Paris she had been playing herself up and charming boys left and right, but the redhead next to her was so hard to crack. Flirting had gone way over his head; he was disinterested or not paying attention to her stories. It seemed like the only things that mattered to the boy was the assignment and the other girl, she noticed those glances he would do when the blonde wasn’t looking and it was making Lila ill. Admittedly their project on dangerous weather patterns was coming out pretty good so far, Nathanial was really an amazing artist. The clouds at the top of the poster looked almost real, and she could almost feel the rain on her skin.  
“Hey Lila where’s those drawing skills you were bragging about” Chloe purrs with another smirk, baiting the hook.  
“It’s not like the assignment is on art talent, besides the poster is full already. I wouldn’t want my art clashing with his,” Lila fires back with a smirk that might just have well have been a bearing of fangs.  
Despite the smiles the air grew tense and Nath prepared himself for the predicable fight, why was he put in a group with the two biggest egos anyway?  
The girls slowly stand up from the table they were using and circle each other, than like a bullet had been shot the two began firing insults about clothing and whatever else they could think of. Nathanial lets them have their hissy fit so he can check his phone. More importantly the lady blog, Nath opens it to find there was an akuma sighting in the park a few blocks over.  
Before Nathanial can sneak away a thump is heard on the outside window, the girls stopping their bickering for the moment. Chloe is first to react and throws open the curtains expecting a bird or even a rock.  
“Miraculous lady-butt”  
The spotted women had landed back to the window with her lower cheeks pressing against the glass; she recovers from the hit to wave in embarrassment at the teen’s colour kissing her facial cheeks.  
“ She’s really let herself go” Lila comments as the hero zips away, not taking notice to the different skin tone, hair and eye colour the hero had just then.  
“Oh please like you’re one to talk” Chloe snaps resuming their argument.  
“I just remembered I have a….thing I have to do, later” Nathaniel calls gathering his things with wicked speed and running out of the hotel just as Chloe and Lila got to the hair pulling stage.

“Aw do we have to transform” Plagg whines sticking his head out to look at his temporary holder, Nath darts behind a trash can and holds up his ringed hand. 

“Afraid so….uh”

“Claws out”

“Right, Plagg claws out”

The cat is absorbed into the ring and the transformation takes place, Nathaniel watches in awe as the leather covers his body. He runs a clawed hand though his hair to find two fake cat ears resting on his head, Nath giggles with glee becoming his idol in a way not even in his wildest drawings he would have thought possible.  
Nath scales the building easily and runs atop the rooftops making his way to the park, trying out the way Chat would run on all fours in order to build speed to mixed results. He did go faster, but he also tripped on his belt tail and face planted quite hard.

“You got mixed up too huh?” a voice calls from above him, groaning he turns over to find Ladybug looking down at him. He must have hit himself hard because he could have sworn she was wearing her hair differently.

“It’s me, Volpina” the spotted lady clarified “my kwami got switched with ladybugs” she helps him up laughing softly, “so do I call you Chat or what?”

“I don’t know do I call you my lady?” He counters and the two giggle in a way that fans would rather than superheroes. 

“Oh lookie loo two super heroes in a switch-a-roo” a third voice calls getting the heroes attention, the akuma was a humanoid kangaroo wielding a giant hammer and wearing a baseball hat on its head. With a goofy laugh she plunges down with the hammer aiming for their heads. 

Volpina and Paon scream and jump out of the way just in time as the hammer destroys the roof they were standing on, “this is paw-sitivly claw-ful” Paon shouts wishing he had his fans to just glide over the next few buildings.

“Hey that’s my line” the real Chat calls out when the two land at the parks entrance, Chat looking absolutely ridiculous in Paon’s costume. Not to mention the way his face was puffed up and he kept sneezing didn’t help anything. 

“Feathers are just not your thing” Volpina comments playing around with her yo-yo as she spoke, the weapon flew straight up and hit her on the head when gravity claimed it.  
“I’d say I look pretty good as Chat” Paon half jokes doing a few poses to show off the costume, Volpina laughs along while Chat rolls his eyes and sneezes again. Suddenly a ringtone is heard coming from all three heroes’ weapons, Chat having the hardest time summoning the fans to answer it.

“Just think of them appearing” Paon advises as he pokes around with the baton, getting an image of Ladybug appearing to be flying over Paris. 

“Looking rather foxy today my lady” Chat flirts having given up on the fans to peek over Paon’s shoulder; Ladybug pretends to laugh and puts on a serious face.

“Looks like Trixx was right, Volpina you have to cure that akuma, and I’m on my….”

She’s cut off as a figure slams into her on screen, ending the call.  
A crash from above causes a dust cloud that blinds the heroes for a moment, clearing to revel Ladybug wrestling with the akuma. “Guys help me out here” she calls getting thrown off and crashing into a tree. 

“Right, here goes” Chat charges summoning the fans this time and swinging wildly at the kangaroo, she dodges and laughs again. Easily knocking Chat off balance and kicking him away, Volpina attacks next throwing the yo-yo with all her strength. But the akuma smacks it away with her hammer, than charges Volpina with enough speed to send her flying as well.  
Ladybug gets up and on instinct throws her weapon ready to tie and trap the akuma, but she had a flute now. Which just clatters on the ground uselessly, “oops” she says dumbly. Quickly she has to jump up to dodge the akuma’s hammer, and ends up stuck in the air as the ability to fly kicked in. “this isn’t as cool as I thought it would be” she cries trying to fly back to the ground and shooting off in a random direction instead.

“Ladybug” Chat cries in horror as his lady flies out of control towards the parks largest tree, he gathers himself and flaps the fans down like how he’d seen Paon do it. The sudden speed was too much for the tomcat and instead of catching he crashes into the tree before Ladybug could which changes her flight pattern to the opposite direction, poor bug screaming all the way.

“How do I use this thing?” Paon asks no one in particular, holding Chat’s baton trying to make it grow. Without thinking he turns it towards his face, which causes the baton to smack him in the eye “ow”. 

“Why don’t you give me your miraculous and I’ll end this chaos” the Kangaroo offers appearing before Paon, her hand out to accept the jewelry.

“Sorry but I’m not allowed to give away other’s things” Paon fires quickly spinning and faking a kick to make her block, and using the baton now at a decent length to hit her unprotected side. “Hey that worked” he says with a childish glee, the akuma recovers from the hit and towers over him with a much more dangerous expression. Peon’s cat ears flatten on his head despite not being real “uh oh”.  
Suddenly a large shield bangs into the akuma sending it flying into the parks fountain, the disc bangs against a tree, the ground and a statue than back into the hands of the hero that had thrown it. Queen Bee arrives wearing a turtle based costume and the angriest expression she could muster. “You’re going to pay for taking away my Pollen” she growls cracking her knuckles. Paon stands in utter awe as the girl walks up and stands by him “looks like you’ve shrunk little kitty” she comments holding one hand up to show how taller she was compared to yesterday. Paon just stuck his tongue out at her when she wasn’t looking, he wasn’t that short.  
Meanwhile Volpina uses her yo-yo to lasso Ladybug down to earth, apologizing for the rough landing. The girls meet up with Chat to rush over to regroup with the other two, 

“Okay we need a plan here” Chat states eying the akuma beginning to charge them.

“Oh I know what to do, Lucky charm!”  
Ladybug tries to stop her but Volpina preforms the move regardless, catching two shoelaces to her bewilderment. “Not trying to copy you bug but what am I supposed to do with this?”  
Ladybug sighs trying to figure out what to do, the akuma reaches them and gives them a good smack with her hammer. Or at least tried to because everyone was able to jump out of the way in time, Ladybug looks over her team and an idea pops to her head “Okay everyone, here’s what we’re going to do”.

The Akuma pulls her hammer from the ground and looks for her targets, confused to not see anyone. Paon whistles to get her attention “I forgot to thank you for the new costume, I think I’ll make a much better Chat Noir then the other one ever could” he purrs and the akuma charges him. 

“I think I’m taking a liking to these wings too, no one can ignore me meow” Chat calls from behind her, she turns and charges him instead. 

“What are you a kangaroo or a bull?” Paon calls changing the akuma’s direction again.

The akuma huffs and puffs as she tires from charging the boys over and over, “hey over here” a third voice calls much to her frustration. The akuma turns to see Volpina pretending to take off an earring, “you wanted these little things?”

“Give it here” the akuma charges again hammer ready to strike, not noticing the two shoelaces tied together to form a trip rope, she trips and slams straight though Volpina to reveal it was just an illusion covering a wall. The akuma is too stunned to stop Bee from grabbing her hat and throwing it over to Ladybug hiding in the trees. She rips it in half with relative ease and calls for Volpina to catch the akuma with the yo-yo.

“Okay got it open….where’s the butterfly?” 

“guys I don’t think it was in the hat” Chat calls as kangaroo pulls herself up knocking Bee to the ground, Bee screams and holds up her shield as kangaroo prepares to slam her hammer down on her. 

“Cataclysm” Paon shouts racing towards the two and using the now darkened hand to slice and disintegrate the hammer in the akuma’s hands, the loss of weight makes kangaroo loose her balance crashing into the wall behind her. 

“I’ve always wanted to do that” Paon grins as the rest of the team gather around the akumantized victim, scanning for anything that might be the akuma item. 

“It wouldn’t be this would it?” Chat asks picking up a dog collar wrapped around the akuma’s neck, the force of pulling it off broke the seal releasing the butterfly within, “oh…” 

Ladybug only freaks out a little when it came to coaching Volpina to catch the little devil but it made the rest of the team chuckle nevertheless. 

“How’d you guess?” Paon asks tilting his head to the side.

“The peacock is known for detail, perhaps the switch is allowing us to borrow some traits as well” Bee theorized scratching her chin. She steps back when everyone stares at her in silence “What?”

“Miraculous ladybug” Volpina calls and thousands of ladybugs cover parts of the park, than the five heroes changing them back to their usual costumes. They cheer checking over their costumes, Paon summoning his fans, Volpina checking her ears and Ladybug breathing a sigh of relief to feel the yo-yo in her possession again. The five all stand in a circle and put one fist in so all their fists connected, “Pound it”.

Ladybug turns to face the akuma victim expecting a person of sorts, but is taken back when a tiny Chihuahua barks at her. “I didn’t realize pets could be akumantized too” she admits to break the silence that formed and the little dog barks and whines. 

“There you are my little Tasmanian devil” the owner calls coming to pick up the dog and carry it away waving at the heroes “hope Roo wasn’t too much trouble” he adds with a laugh.

“He wasn’t that ruff” Chat calls only getting a laugh from Paon and Volpina for his efforts.

“You made a great ladybug Volpina, I’m sorry I freaked out there” Ladybug says putting a hand on the fox holders shoulder.

“Actually now that everyone’s here I had an announcement to make” Volpina starts rubbing her flute nervously in her hand, waiting a minute for everyone to look at her.

“Trixx and I were thinking about the akuma attack yesterday when she said I was impersonating an akuma”

“Don’t listen to an akuma, they are just trying to hurt you” Ladybug cuts in before she could stop herself, “Sorry continue”.

Volpina sighs “Well we were thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be calling myself Volpina, that maybe we could change our name”

“Can you do that?” Chat asks scratching behind his head, Paon and Bee engage in shrugs when he looks to them.

“I don’t see why not” Volpina defends putting her hands on her hips.

“So what do we call you?” Peon asks 

“Rena, Rena Rouge” 

Hawk moth was unusually calm as he felt the akuma being purified once again, "you heroes may think you have won but my plan worked perfectly" he growled towards the open window.  
"With Duusu's memories locked away you'll never see the spider's web until it's too late" he finishes raising his arms as the window closes swollowing the room in darkness once more.  
Paris had changed since she had last walked its streets, there was more people, more buildings, and the metal pile she once used as a webbing site had been transformed into a giant tower in the sky. Regardless what was important stayed the same, that being the negative emotions that oozed off the living. The spider wished she could drain the strangers that passed by but like most demons she was bound by her word. She could not hurt anyone, so her power had to return painfully slow. She was frustrated how small she had become since being trapped; streets would take hours to cross end to end, people who could squish her without even putting in effort. But alas she continued following the faint trail of the peacock’s miraculous, keeping far away from the human’s clumsy feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tried to space out the talking to make it easier to read, but it seems whenever I edit it to be like that it doesn't stay like that, so my apologies if this is nice and spaced out one scene and crammed together the next


	8. BBQ pests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm acting like the show by adding a plot element and not doing anything with it for like ever, I got at least three more chapters planned out for this story. This one was supposed to be the next chapter but I needed to add some details that just didn't flow with it, I won't abandon this story so we'll get to it soon enough.  
> As always thank you so much for reading.  
> Bee warned, there is mention of a swear word in here

Chapter 8 BBQ pests  
Several weeks passed with only a handful of akuma attacks, they were all ridiculously easy compared to the ones that had come before them. So Nathanial had been using the time to focus more on Queen Bee rather than the akuma of the day. What was it about her that turned his eye? The way she idolized ladybug and tried to mimic her movements in battle, her incredible strength (had he not seen her lift a car to allow people to escape he wouldn’t have believed her), or simply the way she glowed like a star when in flight. Whatever the reason he found himself growing more comfortable around the yellow hero, there were even times he would talk with her out of costume. Queen Bee was friendly and even a little shy when it was just Nathanial, and it amused him to no end that the same character would throw him off the Eiffel tower one moment then be sharing a basket of fries the next.  
Their first meeting was a nice one; Nath had come across Queen Bee sitting on the railing of a cobblestone bridge in the oldest part of town. When he called to her she sat up straight painfully quick, trying to pretend everything was alright.  
“Nath…Civilian what do you want?” she asks quickly catching herself, using one arm to wipe at her eyes  
“I usually come here to enjoy the sunset, it is pretty isn’t it?” Nathanial says coming up next to her to lean on the railing, watching the sky turn to a magnificent orange and red. Bee following his eye to see it as well, funny how she’d never taken the time to see it before.  
“Yea it is….” Bee trails off looking down at her hands, clenching and unclenching them as if she was new to them.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“It’s nothing I just…” she sighs heavily and turns her body to face him “can you keep a secret?”  
“Yea of course”  
“It’s my birthday in a month…and I’m scared”  
“It is? Why would you be scared? It’s a celebration for you”  
“I know and it’s my sweet sixteen so I should be ecstatic, but I’m not. I’m going to be a woman one day and I don’t know if I’m ready for that. I mean just a few months ago I was just some spoiled brat that would walk all over anyone, and now I’m a superhero that can’t even stand on her own”  
“I wouldn’t say that, you make an amazing hero. Heck, Paon would be lost without you” Nath states truthfully turning to hop up on the railing to sit next to her, deeming it more important to cheer up Queen Bee than head back home at a decent time.  
“I suppose he would” Bee’s face breaks into a large smile remembering her feathered teammate, “I’d hate for him to see me like this, I’m supposed to be a queen”.  
“Even queens can doubt themselves sometimes”  
Queen Bee said nothing, burying her head in her knees as if to try and disappear. Nathanial shifted closer to put a hand on hers, eventually the action succeeded to uncurl Bee and the two sat quietly watching the stars appear one by one.  
Nathanial also found himself spending more time at Adrian’s or Nino’s in order to avoid being in his childhood house with his dad. Adrian enjoyed having the red head over in order to watch anime or play video games on his giant TV, and the staff seemed to tolerate him more than they did Nino. This made him the perfect smuggler of sweets for the model, Adrian had one of the strongest sweet tooth’s Nath had ever seen. He especially loved anything from the bakery down the road, although Nath suspected it had more to do with the girl upstairs than the sugary goods. It was so obvious Adrian had developed something for Marionette and Nath tried to convince himself that it was a good thing since Marionette was head over heels for him.  
The trio was in the middle of an intense boss fight, Nathanial and Adrian had already died so it was up to Nino to deliver the final blow. Shushing the other two from their excited screaming to concentrate, he was at one hit left when a female voice comes from behind them.  
“Hey Adrian, Nathalie said you’d be in here. I wanted to drop this off in person and they didn’t mind” Chloe explains taking out an envelope decorated with a pink hue and silver hearts.  
Nino over dramatically groans as the game over music plays, he flops down on his back to glare at Chloe “What’s wrong with the mailbox?” he asks crossing his arms in a childish pout.  
“Well it’s my sweet sixteen in a few days and I wanted to give my childhood friend a visit” Chloe defended copying the action with her arms.  
Adrian stands up to accept the written invitation “this is really cool Chloe, I’ll try to get my schedule cleaned out in time”. Nath noticing he used the action to dump a blanket off his lap and onto the scattered crumbs that surrounded him, he was such a pig. Ooh a pig that was a good one, Nath opens a small journal book to sketch a small Adrian with a pig nose and tail.  
“Oh right and since you’re here I got some invites for you two as well” Chloe continues shuffling though a pile of invites in her hands. “Since I’ve only known you two for like a year you should know that this will be a formal event and a suit is required”.  
Nath looks up from his book with a look of confusion on his face, “Chloe we’ve known each other longer than that” he says instantly regretting it as everyone in the room stares at him.  
“Don’t you remember? Swan lake school of dance? We were in the same class” he continued wishing he hadn’t said anything. 

“No way dude, you were a dancer?” Nino is the first to break the awkward silence “didn’t see you as the stage type but that’s awesome” he adds to show he didn’t think badly of Nath for it.  
Chloe looked lost as she rattled out an excuse about having to dry her hair or something, and leaves the room similar to how another girl in their class would. Nathanial sighs as she slams the door in her rush, guess she didn’t remember after all. Adrian takes the moment to turn their attention back to the game, and for once Nathanial was thankful that he wasn’t one to ask questions. 

“Chloe, why are we here? We’re not done yet” Pollen scolds peeking her head out of the bag to see they were back in her room. “Don’t you think that you can avoid the girls, you need to face them sooner rather than later….are you listening to me?”  
Chloe ignored the giant bee as she pulled books out of a box with reckless abandon, crying out in triumph as she pulls out an old worn photo album with a pink swan decorating the cover. She opens the cover to the first photo which was off a five or six year old Chloe wearing your standard pink tutu, she coos at it for a moment. She was such a precious ballerina back then, but that wasn’t what she was looking for. She turns more pages ignoring classes without her and landing on one covered in pink glitter to highlight little Chloe in the crowd, Chloe grabs a nail file to pick away at the glitter to find the faces of other ballerina’s in the class. No red head in the first one, or the second one, but in the third there was definitely a tomato-head in the crowd. They would have been about eight in the photo, little Chloe was still working off some baby fat and was well behind on her growth spirt. Whining until you got cake for dinner would do that to a kid. Behind her was a boy much taller than her at the time, long red hair tied in a messy ponytail and a confident grin on his face. She dropped the book in shock, not because Nathanial was right about the dance class, but what she had wrote beside the photo that had triggered a memory. “My swan prince”  
“Mommy I met a swan today”  
“Seriously Chloe, you don’t even live near a waterbed”  
“No mommy he’s a swan prince, and I’m gonna be his princess”  
Pollen lands on Chloe’s head to look at the photo as well, “Oh so he’s a childhood crush as well?” Chloe yells in surprise and tries to smack the annoying kwami with the book, failing and falling onto her bed with a plop.  
~flashback~  
Chloe was a sweet little eight year old in the best ballet class in France, although right now she was pouting again on the floor because things weren’t going her way. They were going to be preforming the famous ballet Swan Lake, and the stupid teacher wasn’t making Chloe the star.  
“Hey you should be practicing” a voice calls to her; she looks up ready to pounce on who dared to interrupt a very important pouting session. She stops seeing her swan prince scowling down at her; some of his bangs had sneaked out of the ponytail to cover his left eye giving him a cool mysterious look. “  
“Did you hear me? Get up” the prince commands his frown never faltering, Chloe adjusts her position to try and touch her toes without bending her knees  
“I’m just stretching, wouldn’t want to hurt my muscles now” she says trying to show off how flexible she was and failing to reach past her ankles. The redhead rolls his eyes returning to his routine, Chloe eyeing the way his legs twirled him across the floor.  
It was the night of the recital, and the place was packed full of people. Chloe waved to her daddy before disappearing behind the curtain along with other nervous dancers, chattering away to each other. Chloe was still mad that she hadn’t landed the part as Odette despite looking the cutest in costume, (which she had done without asking) instead she had the part of one of the swans. So in her childish frustration she decides to get revenge, she borrows a bottle of baby oil and splashes some at the front of the stage during one of the breaks in between acts. Now the dancers would slip and humiliate themselves, the blonde devil giggled and waited for the curtain to rise. During the act her prince came into view wearing black feathers that made his arms look like wings, as he danced around the stage Chloe noticed he was desperately scanning the crowds, looking for someone. Chloe can only watch in horror realizing her mistake as he slips on the baby oil and falls off the stage in a crumpled heap. His mother rushing over to him and trying to help him up, her prince was screaming in pain.  
After the show Chloe saw her prince getting his arm wrapped in a makeshift cast while he tried not to sob. How could he dance now? It was all Chloe’s fault, he probably hated her now.  
~end of flashback~  
“Chloe hey, Earth to Chloe” Pollen was saying waving her arms in front of the blonde, Chloe snaps out of her flashback and feels tears form and slide down her face. 

“I’m the reason he stopped dancing, he’ll never see me as anything but a bully” Chloe sobbed hugging her pillow, Pollen patted her on the head as she cried out knowing her childhood and currant crush would never be more than that.  
~flashback~  
Nathanial got into dance because his mom was one of the teachers, but as time went on he had grown to love it almost as much as she did. His mom was going to be a professional ballerina but had put that on hold when he came along, so he danced to show her that talent was with him as well.  
One thing the eight year old couldn’t help but notice was when the other ballerina’s parents came to showings or just picking them up after classes, he had read in many books that moms and dads loved each other as much as they did their children. But the way other fathers would act with their kids was far from the way his dad would, whenever he did show up both of his parents would grow tense and Ralph would take him without a word. Still it was better than the fights they would get into at any hour of the night, shouting and crying would ring off the walls and squeeze under the door Nath would shut to try and drown them out.

“Mom, where is dad?” Nathanial asks one day finding her alone in the living room, using a pillow to muffle sobs that escaped her throat.  
“Dad and I have agreed we need to go our separate ways, so he’s left for the night” His mom replied wiping her eyes with her sleeves and ruffling her son’s hair. “Mummy and Daddy just don’t love each other anymore”.

“It’s because of me isn’t it? He never liked me anyway” Nathanial chokes out unable to stop his body from shaking, because it had to be true.  
“Oh buddy no that’s not true” his mother cooed pulling the now sobbing boy onto her lap and hugged him silently for a moment. “Please don’t blame yourself” she adds rubbing circles in the boys back.  
There were pictures on the walls of his parents looking totally in love with each other; they were full of dreams and hope. Now the chrysanthemums were wilting by the door, no matter what his mom said he had destroyed the happy couple just by being born. The very thought making the young boy cry harder into his mother’s chest.  
The big night of the Swan Lake was the one night Nathanial had begged his dad to come and see him preform via telephone, this could be the one time to show him that he didn’t have to leave. Naively believing all it would take would be to dance his words towards his father. But as he scanned the crowd, there was no red head that towered over the smaller people.  
When the dance went to its next act he still couldn’t see him, panic started to swell in him as he performed the dance as he had practiced. He made a beginners mistake of looking around the room while spinning rather than staring at a single thing, the action made him dizzy. Suddenly his feet flew out and he fell off the stage, falling on his arm hard. The pain and embarrassment cracking the mask he wore learned from watching his father. Emotions made you weak in his eyes. And there Nath was trying not to sob as his mother carried him off to the first aid room, he would later find out the jealous blonde Chloe had booby trapped the stage which resulted in his fractured arm. But he didn’t care, because he didn’t see his dad again until a week later. At the court house where he declared he wanted nothing to do with Nathanial so long as he remained “Mommy’s little dancing boy” and left without even a goodbye.  
~End of flashback~  
Nathanial shuttered at the memory, it’s been a long time since he last remembered one of the worst days of his life. Adrian was called to a last minute showing and had to end the guys gaming time early, so he was now on the streets playing with the invite in his hands. Did he even want to go? Formal just sounded boring and it was the school bully he was thinking about. Still she seemed to be putting that behind her and he should encourage her to be better than she was before.  
“Nathanial we need to talk” Duusu calls to him when they leave the sight of the security cameras; she wouldn’t be seen on camera but didn’t want to risk it. There was a strange energy in that house that was enough to make her uneasy.  
“About?”  
“I know you’re not a bully Nath so why do you draw Adrian like that? He’s been nothing but kind to you” the bird scorns putting her nubby hands where her hips would be.

“Well I um…” Nathanial stutters while trying to find an answer, not used to someone seeing every drawing he made. Especially the ones he’d rather people didn’t see, his stupid doodles of Adrian being a big one. 

“It seems to me you have some feelings to work though, and you’re going to start by not drawing these mean pictures anymore. Understand?” Duusu finishes making her voice stern at the last word.

“I understand” Nathanial confirms ripping out the problematic doodle and crumbling it up in his hands, tossing it into a nearby trash can to seal it away.

“So you are going to paint something for Chloe’s birthday?” Duusu asks to change the subject as they walk back home, silently thankful they were going to his moms tonight. Less stressful for Nathanial and she could gorge on the grape vine on the side of the building while he worked.

“I haven’t a clue what to create for her and besides I don’t think she likes art” Nathanial throws the excuse out quickly.

“I only have stories to go off of but it seems like Chloe’s really trying to be a better person, maybe something about rebirth would be cool” 

Nathanial lights up with an idea “you’re a genius Duusu” he says pulling out his journal to write that idea down, Duusu simply beamed with pride.  
The next day after school Nathanial rushed to the park, nearly forgetting to check the Lady Blog for any akuma sightings. 

“Slow day huh” he comments to no one in particular, taking a seat at one of the benches. 

“No kidding, now come on I want to see what the painting is going to look like” Duusu adds from her nest in his bag, Nathanial had kept the sketch a secret hidden away from the little bird.  
“  
Be patient…whoa” Nathanial grabs the seat to try and gain balance as the whole park seems to shake in an earthquake, suddenly thousands of yellow and black insects swarm into a giant ball in the centre of the park. 

“You fools do not appreciate mother nature, now the wasp will teach you a lesson” an akuma cries reveling itself in the swarm, dressed head to toe in yellow armor. Complete with a helmet shaped like a wasps head, wings held the wasp up in the air and a spear in one hand pointed dangerously at the people below.  
“Spoke too soon” Duusu giggles as Nathanial eagerly runs to the other end of the park to transform, abandoning the painting for now.  
The wasp turned to a group of cowering people and fired a hundred small drones in their direction, but Paon swoops in just in time to use his tail feathers to whip the insects apart. He ends the move crouched on one knee, the back feathers stood up to create a shield of sorts to cover the people as they ran to a safer place. 

“Wasps up?”

“How dare you bird brain” Wasp shouts lunching more wasps at Paon.

“Oh how original, I haven’t heard that one before” Paon calls back summoning his fans to smack the drones left and right, eyeing the akuma trying to find the right item. Was the butterfly in the spear?  
Paon zips around the akuma with blinding speed, using his fans as a boost whenever he needed to. The akuma roared in frustration as he sent drones around in all directions trying to nail the speedster 

“You’d think he was a cheetah instead of a peacock with that speed” bystander comments trying to record Paon Bleu with her phone and being unable to get a clear image.  
Across the park Alya hides behind a large tree and transforms into the wonderful new and improved Rena Rouge, with a smirk she plays a little tune with her flute creating a figure in the orange fog. The fog settles and an illusion of her civilian self stands before the hero, Rena hands her the cell phone and the illusion is able to hold it as if she was real.  
“I’m getting really good at this, okay try to get some good shots”  
The illusion gives a mock salute and runs towards the action ready to get something for the lady blog; Rena activates the phone in her flute to call Ladybug.  
Ladybug answers after the third ring and to Rena’s surprise she appeared to be floating in the water.

“Ladybug there’s an akuma in the park, calls himself the wasp, and has some nasty bee drones.” Rena says keeping it short and simple, ladybug had a stressed out look on her face for a second but relaxed it quickly.

“Chat and I are getting an akuma in the ocean; get Queen Bee to stabilize it until we can get there” and with that she hung up leaving the fox with static. Rena shuts it off and groans, guess the lady blog would have to do without its most popular spotted hero this week.  
“  
Quit moving you over dressed chicken” The wasp snapped 

“Now that’s not bad but you can do better” Paon chirped hoping Ladybug or someone would show up already, he was starting to get winded.

“YOU KENTUCKY FRIED F####”

Paon stopped in his tracks putting one hand to his chest in a mocking offended way, “now that was just plain rude”.  
The akuma roared and commanded his wasps to pick up a nearby motorcycle, which he rode like a knight would in a joust spear ready to turn Paon into Kabob.  
Paon groans as the consequences of running too much catch up to him, he was about to force himself to move when a ramp appeared in front of him and the wasp. The wasp can’t move in time and hits the ramp with such speed that he’s sent flying into the air, screaming as he falls to the ground with a loud bang. 

“Now that’s going to be an awesome shot” Rena exclaimed spotting her double in the crowd who gave a thumbs up, “Ladybugs going to be busy for a while, hear from Queenie yet?” she asks turning to Paon.  
“Not (huff) yet” Paon pants  
They turn their attention back to Wasp as he plunges his spear into the ground, “Now you’re gonna get it” he yells cracking the earth and releasing hundreds of green vines from within. He gets on his (somehow unbroken) bike and rides one of the larger vines towards the heroes. 

“Vines, what do vine have to do with wasps?” Rena asks jumping out of the vines reach, leaving poor Paon to just manage to regain enough stamina to flap away in time.  
The akuma misses his charge and stops his bike; he laughs for a bit and takes off his helmet reveling green skin underneath “Wasps help plants bloom, so I can call upon their power if needed”. Then he places the helmet back on and raises his spear to the sky, giant flowers appear on the vines and try to swallow the peacock and fox in their petals. 

“I am not emu-sed by this” Paon cries as a giant tulip gets in his path and he smacks dead into it, luckily avoiding getting grabbed.

“Alright that’s enough” a new voice shrieks getting the attention of Wasp. Chloe appears from the crowd with an expression that could kill, “my party is going to be at this park in a few days and you’re wasting my precious time” she snaps putting her hands on her hips. 

“What is she doing?” Rena asks throwing both arms out in Chloe’s direction, an expression of confused panic on her face.

“Being a distraction-“Paon pauses to scan the akuma again this time not having to jump around, “he’s the beefy type, has a motorcycle….the helmet. The akuma is in the helmet” he says much louder than he meant to.  
Before she could blink a large rose snaps and eats Chloe and encases her in its petals, the flowers of lilies, roses and tulips go on a rampage grabbing random people in the crowd now realizing they should have gotten out of there. With Chloe out of the way the Wasp turn back to the two, laughing manically he summons more wasps to surround him.  
Peon and Rena break off in separate directions trying to evade the flowers and wasps; Rena uses her flute to create a massive fly swatter to smack a good chunk of the bugs down. 

“Oh come on I haven’t made that many” Rena cries hearing her necklace beep in warning; they had to end this battle fast.  
One of the giant roses starts violently shaking then bursts into full bloom and a yellow figure appears from it. Queen Bee glowing like a goddess of the sun as she stared down her opponent, light reflected off her wings blinding the akuma for a second.  
“Well hello there inspiration” Paon mutters watching the girl blast her way over to him.  
“Paon clear a path for me” Queen Bee orders pointing to the cloud of wasps surrounding the akuma.  
“Good idea, Royal Strike” Paon cries his fans lighting up and sending a blast of blue energy towards the cloud, effectively tearing though the tiny bugs and leaving an opening for the queen.  
Queen Bee manages to easily overpower the wasp by getting her honey dipper jammed in his spear, and using her oh so adorable heel boots to kick the helmet clean off.

“By the way, it’s the bees the plants depend on, not wasps” she purrs to the defenseless akuma  
Rena catches the helmet and smashes it with her flute, releasing the akuma within.  
“Honey trap” Bee calls catching the akuma before it could fly away, the petrified butterfly landing on the grass with a plop.  
The wasp disappears leaving a muscular biker in its place; he rubbed his head and looked at the destruction done to his beloved park. “Please tell me this will be fixed” he says in a small voice that didn’t match the body it came from, he must have been feeling terrible for wrecking the park he clearly loved. 

“Soon” Bee says as all the miraculous’s beep in warning again, “we have to go in a few” she adds grabbing the akuma and handing it over to one of the policeman that had just arrived on scene. They assist in getting the rest of the people out of the giant flowers, thankfully they were unharmed. They had still yet to find Chloe when Bee has to leave, but she tells them she had found her a while ago and she had left to go fix her hair.  
“Make sure Ladybug gets that” Bee calls flying away to protect her identity, Paon and Rena saying goodbyes of their own and disappearing off in separate directions. No one took notice of the certain young reporter walking behind a large dead flower and vanishing from existence.  
Hours later millions of ladybugs clean up the park to its original shape, and the lady blog soon updated with some fantastic shots of the days battle. Nathanial had to laugh at the small video of the battle had him looking like a road runner rather than a peacock. 

“Keep admiring yourself and you’ll really turn into a peacock” Duusu teases watching the video from his shoulder. 

“Shut up” Nathanial says with a smile and laugh to indicate he took it as a joke, “how come we’re so speedy anyway? Peacocks aren’t exactly fast” he adds turning off the phone and grabbing his notepad.

“Same reason why Rena can fly and Queenie is strong, it just works” she explained ducking behind his hair to hide from a pair of children running by.

“It’s dark now, guess it’s too late to get inspiration from the park now” Duusu sighs looking up at the half moon in the sky. 

“Oh I got something” Nath chirps already sketching a rough draft, Duusu looked like she wanted to see but respected his want to keep it a secret for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's amazing to think my original intentions for this story was a peacock Nath and a punch of puns, next thing I know I got some "feels" (would they be feels?) some Yuri on ice inspiration and researching tons about peacocks.  
> I really like the idea of the peacock being the speedster and the Bee being the strong man, I don't really have an explanation but it's not a big part of the story so I hope ya'll don't mind.  
> Get ready to set sail on the next chapter.


	9. Ships and Sweet sixteens

Chapter nine Ships and sixteens  
Pollen was stressed out, “I can’t believe you Chloe risking your identity like that” Pollen ranted pacing around Chloe’s room, her wings creating an awful buzzing sound.  
“It’s one AM can you please calm down” Chloe whined “I told you there was plenty of other people in those flowers so they had no idea it was me” she continues taking off her eye mask to watch the bee in the dimly lit room.  
“I’m getting a migraine” Pollen complains coming to a rest at her holder’s bed, rubbing the sides of her head with her nubs.  
Chloe unplugs her phone and opens it to the lady blog, which she didn’t follow but kept on the internet app at all times. “See Pollen no one suspects anything” she shows the bee the comments and clips from yesterday’s battle. There was nothing out of the ordinary on the page, no conversation about the blonde and the only thing about Queen Bee was that people were calling her a measly substitute for ladybug. Which both girls frowned at, but it was better than what could be happening.  
“I know I should have changed beforehand, I just got caught up in the moment” Chloe sighed “living two lives is hard” she grumbled tossing the phone aside.  
“I suppose Queens can make mistakes too” pollen admits quietly, “but next time you’re not transforming until I say it’s safe”.  
“I’m finally a Queen?”  
“Not even close, go to sleep Chloe”  
The annoying beeping of the alarm clock woke Chloe from her not nearly long enough sleep, she shuts it off and flops back onto her pillow.  
“Chloe get up we have stuff to do today”  
“What are you talking about, it’s a free day” Chloe grumbles checking her phone while hiding under the covers her voice muffled under them.  
“It was, but then you risked your identity causing me to lose beauty sleep so now we are picking Sabrina up at the station” The kwami states with a sneer.  
Chloe throws the blanket off her flinching as the cold air touches her skin, “ha, that will be about five minutes tops. Pollen Stingers-“  
“Oh no honey, no transformation”  
“Then I’ll call my-“  
“No driver either, you’re going to get there the commoners way”  
“But-“  
“But nothing, now move it the bus leaves in ten minutes”  
Chloe groans loudly but forces herself to a sped up morning routine, having to omit the morning shower and most of her face prep. Hopefully Sabrina wouldn’t say anything about Chloe’s less than perfect appearance.

The station was noisy and smelly; Chloe held her purse close to her as she fought though the crowds trying to find the one Sabrina would be getting off soon. Pollen was tucked safely inside her purse using the darkness to rest her poor tired eyes. Chloe rubbed some sleep out her eyes as she checked the station board for the third time, wishing they would just put the screen closer to the ground so she could actually read it. The smell of breakfast goods mixed with pigeon poop and shoes was making her want to gag, how did ordinary people do this every day?  
A large train screeches like the souls of the damned as it comes to a stop, with a hiss the doors open and a cute little carrot top appears walking fast to avoid being trampled. She seems startled to see Chloe watching her from the swarms of people, making her way over to her friend with her purple suitcase in tow.  
“Chloe what are you doing here?  
Oh her voice was so squeaky and annoying, especially without the morning sugar boost. Chloe resists a sarcastic comment and simply explains what she was doing and turned to start walking out of the nasty stinky station. Sabrina was familiar with the action and following close behind, giving a small smile to try and lighten the thundercloud that was a tired Chloe.  
“Come on, let’s get some sugar” Sabrina suggests as they approach a coffee shop, Chloe makes no argument as she takes on the following role into the much sweeter smelling shop.  
Five or so minutes later with hot chocolates in hand the girls were now happily chattering away about the family reunion. Maybe it was just because Chloe was tired, but Sabrina felt wonderful being able to talk about her trip without Chloe dominating the conversation. Once the sugar hit the nerves Chloe was able to talk about the last akuma attack and how the beautiful Queen Bee saved her from a flowery tomb. She chose her words carefully to not reveal to her friend that the two blondes were one and the same.  
“Alright I know you’re stalling but I have to ask, what’s with you and Nathanial?”  
Chloe stiffens almost dropping the remains of her drink, “nothing is going on between that tomato-head and I” she states blaming the rising heat on her face on the hot drink.

“If you two got together, you’d finally have your Chat Noir” Sabrina sniffs “you wouldn’t need me anymore”.

“Pfffft you’ll always be my Chat Noir Sabrina” Chloe says without missing a beat, yelping in surprise when it makes Sabrina start to sob. “Wait I didn’t mean to make you cry uh-“

Giggles interrupt hiccups and sobs, “Chloe that has to be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me”. She wipes the tears away and beams stronger than the sun, “now let’s go get ourselves some dresses for your sweet sixteen”.  
Normally Chloe liked being the one in control, but seeing her friend so happy to grab her hand and whisk her off to the shops she decides to let Sabrina pull her along. 

 

“This painting is taking longer than I thought” Duusu says as her holder packs his bag, so far the painting had taken three days and the party was today.

“I didn’t realize I didn’t have a spare sunshine yellow, and it’s only going to take a few minutes to run to the store” Nath claims looking over at the almost finished painting drying in the shade, he picks at some of the dried paint stuck on his hands that escaped the washing. She jumps into her little nest pocket as he heads out the door.  
“The party isn’t until tonight so I got plenty of time to add the final details; it’s not like an akuma…”  
Nathanial’s words die in his throat as a giant ship floats by them, shaped like a pirate ship but with large pink sails and white sparkles trailing behind it. Nathanial stares at it with an expression not unlike a certain Caribbean pirate would have, despite being huge the ship continues down the block without touching a single building as if it was a giant parade balloon.  
“Well ship”  
The akuma hums at the ships wheel; she was dressed as a pirate with a sword and gun at her hip. The clothes were mixes of reds and pinks with a giant heart on her chest, her skin a fine pale blue to make the other colours pop. Subtle was not an akuma’s strong suit, she makes this clear by turning the ship towards crowds of people in the shopping district. She laughs in excitement as the people gasp at her ride and start to run, “don’t run folks there’s no shipping cost”.  
She pulls out her gun which was decorated like a children’s toy and pointed it at a couple cowering in a corner, the gun showed a hologram above it that rose to an 88% on its scale. “Oh what a nice pairing” she purrs and shoots the poor couple enveloping them in a pink light, when it dies down the couple is still alive but in the middle of a massive make out session oblivious to the chaos happening around them. The akuma fires at several more people if her weapon gave her a high rating, having a grand old time.

“That shore is a nice ship; too bad you’ve been beached” Chat calls using his baton to extend and knock the gun out of the akuma’s grasp, she growls and pulls her sword out. 

“Ye should know better than to insult a pirate’s ship” she says with a thick pirate accent, “now feel the wreath of Captain Shell fish” she charges and the two engage in a sword battle.  
Paon lands on the massive ship and sneaks his way over to the gun, he’s inches away from it when Captain Shell fish notices and lunches herself away from Chat to grab the weapon and point it at the two. The hologram appears and shows a rating of 29% “aw that’s not even worth the bullet” she whines jumping back as Chat tries to knock her over with his baton. Paon following close behind with his fans ready to fire, the Captain getting the upper hand by reaching the steering wheel and making the ship do a sharp left.  
“Sorry fellas but no cats or parrots allowed on the love boat” The hero’s struggle to maintain balance as the ship takes a chunk out of a building while turning. “Time to walk the plank boys”

“I am not a parrot, I’m a peacock” Paon snaps crashing into the pole that held up the sails.

“Come on Pollen let’s go” Chloe urges from the empty bathroom, “I gave a reason to leave Sabrina, I checked the bathroom for people, and there are no cameras or peeking toms, can we go already?”  
Pollen hums taking her time to think over the situation mostly to burn that tiny fuse that was Chloe’s patience, “alright now don’t do anything reckless” she says at last.

“Finally, Pollen stinger out”

Captain Shell fish was struggling to keep the hero’s back as she tried to form a plan; the butterfly shaped mask appears and whispers something in her ear. She grins and turns the ship towards the park where couples were watching the workers put up the decorations for the mayors daughter’s birthday party. Her smile only widens as the bee hero appears in the sky above her, “this rocking is making me feel ferry sick” Chat cries landing on his bottom for the fourth time.  
Queen Bee summons her dipper to slam the boat off course, “I am not letting you shipwreck my-Chloe’s birthday” she cries hoping no one noticed the slip up.  
“I didn’t know Chloe and you knew each other” Paon states not catching the slip up correctly, Chloe rolls her eyes to cover the emotions that ran over her.  
“ Looks like this ship be ready for its maiden voyage” Captain Shell fish cries pointing the gun at them seeing a 60% flash in the hologram, “they so obviously have feelings for each other but are in total denial”. Paon and Bee jump out of the way as she fires the weapon but the beams lock onto them and envelope them, Chat screams in protest but is flipped off his feet again by the rocking boat.  
“Now they can be free to express their love” the Captain cries turning the boat in circles so fast that the three heroes are spun off and land on a nearby rooftop. Chat recovers first and flips his call part of his baton out to call his ladybug, “No need to call kitty I’m right here” Ladybug calls jumping down to land inches away from him.  
Ladybug puts her hand out to stop Chat from saying a pun or a flirt to focus at the task at hand, “this akuma sprung up at a really bad time for me so let’s get this over with quickly” she says stress flashing on her face. “Paon, Bee I need you guys to…” she trails off when she sees her teammates, Bee had Paon pushed against the wall, their lips locked in an intense battle of lip and tongue.  
Ladybug and Chat stare in a combination of awe and disgust, Ladybug tearing herself away with a forced gag to refocus on the ship turning and coming towards them.  
“We need to ground that ship” she calls swinging to meet it halfway, Chat shrugs and follows leaving the other two on their own.

“there’s some- fin awful fishy a- boat her weapon bugaboo don’t get hit” Chat says finding it impossible not to grin at his triple pun sentence, Ladybug and Captain Shell fish both groan loudly as result. 

“I’ll have ye sleeping with the fishes” Captain Shell fish cries raising her sword to open the sides of the ship to reveal lazer guns hiding, they charge and fire red and pink balls at the two heroes.  
“Cataclysm” Chat summons his power and aims for the bright pink sails on the ship, the lazers fire and hit the cat boy midair before he could reach his target. 

“Ha you’ll have to be more sneakier than that…“ she stops seeing an orange cloud float in the space Chat was in “-oh no” she turns to see Chat swiping a powered claw on her ships steering wheel turning it to sawdust.  
Rena gives a thumb up to Ladybug and flies to block the path of the now out of control ship, using the many cranes at the top of the buildings to slow the ship down.

“Lucky charm” Ladybug cries and screams as large dotted cannon nearly falls on her head, she stares stunned at it for a moment than grins cheekily.  
Meanwhile the akuma points her gun with chat and Ladybug in its field of view, the scale rising to a whopping 100%.

“The OTP is in sights” she screeches excitedly, using her sword to cut a rope and swing over to Chat. Captain Shell fish’s boots snag onto Chat’s shoulders in a painful manner and swing him into Ladybug who was trying to push her cannon into position. 

“Hey what about me” Rena calls trying to get the attention of the akuma, giving Ladybug and Chat time to recover and plan an attack. 

“Sorry fox, you’re not shipped with anyone” the akuma states matter of factly, Rena accidentally gets offended by this statement.

“Hey I am very shippable…” 

“Sorry Captain Shell fish but your ship isn’t cannon” Ladybug yells and pulls the string on her lucky charm, shooting a cannon ball straight though the ship. Captain Shell fish screams in fear as the ship loses air and comes crashing down after a few more cannon balls bust it to shreds. 

The three hero’s land in front of the wreck looking for the akuma within, “that was cray-sea” Chat says stretching out his back. 

“Ha got you now” the akuma cries jumping out of nowhere and pointing her gun at Chat and Ladybug, not wanting to be under an akuma’s spell Ladybug only has a second to think of a diversion. She grabs Chat by the arm and pulls him close, pressing her lips onto his in an awkward kiss. Chat grows tense at first, but quickly melts into the loving embrace of Ladybug.  
The diversion works, as Captain Shell fish squeals in delight at the smooching super heroes. Ladybug opens and eye to see if Rena got the idea to hit the gun away, instead she sees her foxy teammate with a sneaky grin on her face.

“Okay that’s enough” Rena Rouge says snapping her fingers, the gun in Captain Shell fishes hand disappears in a puff of orange smoke. The akuma gasps not realising they were holding a fake, while Rena proceeds to break the little gun underneath her foot. 

“How long did you have that for?” Ladybug cries having to hold up a still love-dazed Chat.  
Rena doesn’t say anything, a Cheshire cat smile plastered on her face.  
Ladybug wants to scold the fox but instead goes for the escaping butterfly and do her miraculous clean up. 

Paon blinks in confusion, what was he doing on the ground? His lips and neck hurt as if he’d been stung by insects and there was a sweet taste of honey in his mouth. It doesn’t take too long for him to put two and two together when he sees the golden figure that was Queen Bee on top of him, an equal look of horror and embarrassment.  
They scramble to get off one another, unable to apologise or anything as laughter from their teammates cuts in. 

“This is like the best day ever” Rena says in between giggles and squeals, Chat agreeing with her and trying to sneak another kiss from Ladybug. Resulting in Ladybug playfully bobbing him on the nose, “you guys alright?” she asks.

“They’re just a couple of love birds and bug….” Chat trails off as a huge grin blooms on his face, “they’re the birds and the bees” he cries with absolute howls in laughter. Paon and Rena are also unable to hold back their laughter, Paon having to grab his gut from the impact.

“I will not tolerate being reduced to a sex joke” Queen Bee fumes trying to appear serious but the mask was creaking, giggles break out and she joins in on the laughter. Truly laughter was the best way to reduce the awkwardness of any given situation; Ladybug eventually has a few giggles of her own.  
She glances at a clock on one of the shop buildings and gasped “shoot I don’t have any time to lose, bye everyone” Ladybug calls swinging off and out of sight.

“Well today sure was fun” Nathanial says with one last stroke from his paintbrush and marveled at the finished product, the painting was of Chloe from the back. Her blonde hair undone and flowing across the canvas, glowing like a lantern thanks to the mix of yellow colours. From her back two bug-like wings lay wet and new grew out and she was rising up from a giant pink lily pad in a pond. It was absolutely stunning, even to the artist that had seen it every step of the way. 

“Chloe would be a fool not to love it…” Duusu agreed wiping the crumbs from her giant sandwich, “oh no we’re gonna be late” she cries seeing as the sun had gone down.  
Nathanial curses knowing the painting wouldn’t be dry in time; he scratches non-existent facial hair and snaps his fingers when an idea comes to him.

“We’ll give her another present, something she’ll never forget” 

“I don’t follow”

“Paon will come to the party and dance with her”

Duusu’s face drops slightly “don’t you want to dance with her as Nathanial?”

“Come on, me dance with Chloe? I don’t think I have the guts to do that, and besides she really likes superheroes” Nathanial claims giving her a good dose of puppy eyes.

Duusu tries to argue more but sighs in defeat, “Okay but you can’t go in your usual costume”

“What do you mean?”

“Just say the usual words, I’ll do the rest”

“My aren’t you looking fine” Alya purrs skipping over to her best friend, it was amazing enough that Chloe had invited the two girls to the party, even more so when Chloe offered a pair of crystal earrings to go with Marionette’s dress. On the condition she didn’t upstage her at her own birthday party.  
It was fairly simple as far as dresses go, black with a princess cut at the front. Trailed down to the floor but not enough to trip, and she wore her hair up in a braided bun to show off the backless part. Marionette wore it with pride having made it with her own two hands.  
Alya’s dress was as bright and flirty as she was, dark browns mixed with bright orange to give a fresh fall look that blurred whenever she spun around. Another Marionette design, Alya wore her hair down as she normally did.

“Come on let’s mingle” Alya calls grabbing her friend’s arm and pulling her towards the crowd.  
Chloe peeked at the party happening from behind the tent she was hiding in “I’m so nervous Pollen” she admits to the kwami.

“You did amazing today Chloe, you were kind without my guidance, you were generous to an old rival, and you didn’t give up your identity. You have every right to go out there, find your bird and make this your night” Pollen says fixing the sleeves on Chloe’s dress and patting down a few stray hairs.

Chloe nods and steps out of the tent, leaving Pollen to chill in a makeshift sitting area she had made complete with pillows and sugary treats “Go get em princess”  
Chloe walks nervously though the crowd trying to spot a red hair, she stops to ask others if they were having a good time with practiced ease. Being as polite as she could be even when she could have cared less who she asked, getting many compliments from people that came because they worked with her father.  
Then she sees it, a redhead moving through a sea of black suits. Chloe rushes over to greet him before he could disappear again, her hand grasps his gloved one and she gasps. It wasn’t Nathanial, it was Paon Bleu or at least it had to be, the same blue-green eyes gazed at her from behind a navy mask.  
Instead of his usual attire he wore something that made him look like a musketeer, even having a cape decorated with a peacock’s feather pattern. A brown hat sat on his red hair pulled back into a ponytail, with a little feather tucked to it. 

“Paon…” she says quietly, making the hero give a chuckle.

“Chloe Bourgeois” purrs from his lips.

His painting didn’t do her justice, she looked lovelier with her hair down then his paintbrushes could produce, and she wore a beautiful sea green dress with a sweetheart line. Simple diamond earrings twinkled with the fairy lights surrounding the park, and she had a black hairband to keep the bangs out of her face.  
A song begins to play and couples join hands for a slow dance, Paon feels his face burn underneath the mask it was now or never.

“Care to dance?” he says in a way he never could as Nathanial, Chloe couldn’t take her eyes off of him and accepted with a genuine soft smile. 

It was a little awkward at first, but soon they were gliding across the dance floor like they were old dance partners. He lifted her to have her stand above the crowd that had formed around them, normally Nath would have wilted at the attention but right now all that mattered was the sun in his hands.  
Marionette was going to thank Chloe a thousand times if she lived through this; her breaths were hitched and slow next to the boy she was dancing with. Adrian smiled at her wearing a grand suit that made him look more handsome than possible; turns out he really looked good in black. When the song ends he finds a red rose in a decoration and places it in her hair, smiling at his work.  
“You look really nice in red” he comments  
The next song is far more upbeat and freeing, gathering groups together to jump around. Paon smirks “do you know how to tango?”

“I sure do, think you can keep up?” Chloe challenges with a flirty edge in her tone. 

Their dance quickly changes from soft and sweet to spicy and flirty; people stepped back in awe of the two dancing like it was a competition. He dipped, she spun, the lights shown off them in a dazzling light show. Even Marionette looked away from Adrian to watch, ha take that Marionette. Chloe smirks in her direction then returns to Paon for the rest of the evening.  
Food and drinks come from waiters moving though the crowds, and the two indulge in both when they needed a break from dancing. Of course there’s also gift unwrapping and cake and plenty of long island iced tea. Something Chloe had asked her daddy at the end of her last birthday to try for her special day, and those brave enough to try the drink found it wonderful.  
Nearing the parties’ end Chloe was feeling a tad tipsy as the several long island iced teas sneak up on her; she and Paon were sitting on the grass away from the people enjoying the cool wind blowing on their heated faces.  
Turns out drunk Chloe is the clingy type; she practically had leeched onto Paon’s side and had no intention of letting go.  
Paon hears the dreaded sound of his miraculous warning him and stands up on shaky legs “I have to go now Chloe” he says wondering if booze affected him in costume as much as it did without.  
“Take me home first” Chloe orders giving her best puppy eyes expression, not nearly as effective as Nathanial’s or Adrian’s but it did the trick. Paon sighs and picks her up in a bridal position; he gives a small wave to her father who wasn’t nearly as drunk as other partiers and launches into the night. He only has to break a few laws of physics to get them both safely in Chloe’s room.

He gently places the girl down on her bed to see she had passed out during the trip; he smiled gently at her form and turned to leave. A hand grabs his cape and prevents him from moving further away, “stay for a little bit” Chloe asked in her drunken state.

“Chloe I’m going to change back, I can’t staaaaaaaaaay!” he stretches the last word as she pulls him with unexpected strength causing him to flop down on the bed next to her.

“Stay” she repeats with such determination that Paon can’t find it in him to go just yet, he’d wait for a few minutes for her to fall asleep. Just a few minutes…

Duusu yawns as the first rays of sunshine peek into the massive room; her holder snuggled up with Chloe was such an adorable sight. It took a lot of practice to not make a sound when refueling but she was determined to do so as she scarfed down the cake and cookies left over in the kitchen downstairs. When she comes back the two are still fast asleep with a “do not disturb” on the bedroom door, she’s about to sit down and nudge her holder when a sound brings her attention to a tiny leg trying to hide itself behind a curtain. With enough speed you could practically hear the “nyoom” as she tackles the figure and traps it in a big hug.

“Pollen it’s been so long, how have you been?”

“Duusu, we’re not supposed to see each other, I’m not supposed to know your holders identity” Pollen scolds “You are definitely not supposed to know mine” she adds fighting to free herself from the bird’s tight grip.

“Yea, yea, I know but they don’t know each other’s identity and look how cute they are, the ship sails regardless of costume” Duusu coos letting Pollen go to spin in the air. 

“Besides I won’t tell if you don’t tell” she promises with a smirk.

Pollen sighs in defeat “Fine just get him out of here before Chloe wakes up, I don’t know how she’ll react to a giant bee and little peacock in her room not to mention the boy” 

“Pollen I know your miraculous anywhere, I mean my boy has sketched it once or twice…wait you haven’t even looked” Duusu brags ending it with a giggle 

“I am not supposed to know” Pollen snaps accidentally raising her voice to above a whisper.

Nathanial finds it hard to open his eyes; turns out drinking in costume did not save you from a hangover. He forces them open to see the girl lying next to him…Chloe lying next to him….his brain clicked and he jumped out of the bed in shock. Landing with a loud thud on the floor, Duusu zooms over to him to see if he was alright. 

“We didn’t…do anything did we?”

“No need to get your mind in the gutter you just cuddled like the cuties that you are”  
Chloe groans in warning and Nathanial somehow finds the strength to transform despite the pounding headache, Chloe hisses at the bright blue light then remembers the situation.

“Paon?” she whispers towards the figure standing up proving you didn’t have to do the dance sequence to transform.

“Yea sorry I’ll be taking my leave, happy birthday Chloe” the feathered hero says before leaping off the balcony with ease. Chloe pulls herself off the bed to watch him disappear across the city, her eye catching something caught in the balcony’s metal. A peacock feather, a much smaller one like the kind he wore in his hat the night before. She took it in her hands and smiled to herself, she may have lost her chance with the swan but maybe she still had one with the peacock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh this one was a delight to write, both sarcastically and truthfully. If anyone is curious I had Christina Perri's a thousand years in mind as the slow song and Walk the moon's shut up and dance with me as the tango. Not sure why I think a pop song would go with a tango dance, so feel free to put whatever music you feel fit to the scene. And no one knows the others secret identity but man do I love to tease about it, don't think I'll put a reveal in this fic but you never know down the line.  
> And I did check and as far as I could find France doesn't really care if a sixteen year old is drinking, if they do then that's a whoops on my part.  
> Also I had this head cannon that the super hero suits can change depending on the wearers use for them, just because Hawk moths costume is far too suit like to work on a super hero and its a good excuse to imagine Nath in a marketeers costume


	10. Trick or treats

Chapter 10 Tricks and treats  
Duusu was working away on a little project of hers, using white paper, yellow marker, and a lot of tape. Satisfied with how it looked she picked it up and flew over to where Nathanial was working on a page of his comic, several discarded drafts tossed aimlessly around him. In good news actually being in the action of an akuma battle made fight scenes a lot easier to produce, the drawback to that was he was almost never satisfied with resulting picture. The two had gotten into the habit of working in silence during these times; Duusu would snack or doodle quietly while Nath worked on his hobby. It had taken Duusu weeks to get the smell of cheese out of her little nest, so she was glad to work on something else now that it was taken care of.  
“What do you think Nath?” Duusu holds up her creation and try as Nath did he had no idea what he was looking at.

“Is it a bracelet?”

“Oh maybe I should put it on” Duusu slides the paper over her face and it becomes clear it was a costume, a flower costume. “Ta da” 

“I see it now, cool” Nath compliments popping a grape in his mouth and tossing a second one to her, with practiced ease she catches it midair and devours the fruit.

“What are you going as for Halloween?”

“Hmmm, I haven’t decided-“he pauses to chew on his pencil “might just go as Leonardo Da Vinci again”.

“What, but he was so boring” Duusu whines “he never wanted to go out unless absolutely necessary”

“Wait you were partners with Leonardo? As in the painter of the Mona Lisa”

“Only for a little while, he gave me up after a few weeks”

“Oh…” Nath scratches behind his neck as Duusu flies down to sit on his free hand, “well I’m not giving you up, you’re my friend Duusu”.

The little bird lights up like a nightlight “you’re my friend too Nathaniael” she chirps.  
With a sudden burst of energy she takes a hold of some of Nathaniel's hair and plays around with it “I have the perfect costume idea for you, can I try it please, please, please?” she begs like a child. 

“Okay but no high heels, I can’t walk in those”

“Deal” Duusu says with a giggle, shaking Nathaniel's hand best she could with her tiny arms.

The class was lively as the kids compared and complimented each other’s costumes. Sabrina was rocking a Jagged Stone costume, Ivan was a wizard beard and all, Kim was dressed as some sort of cool surfer dude, Alix was a troll, Lilia was a witch. Max was wearing a skeleton and was currently pointing out some lesser known bones to Mylene. Mylene was wearing an adorable white cat get up, Rose and Juleka appeared to be a pair of butterfly’s one white one black, Chloe was wearing some sort of gladiators costume, although she was far too dolled up to look like a real warrior and Nathaniel had his hood up for the time being. Duusu had asked he keep it covered until everyone showed up, Marionette, Adrian, Alya and Nino seemed to be late.

“We’re here, sorry had a costume complication” Marionette cried making it in seconds before class was to start; she was dressed in a plain beige dress with an apron tied around her waist. Her hair was also tied in a bun with a rag on top of it. Alya was dressed as a she- devil, her red outfit almost too scandalous for school dress code.

“Wow Marionette dressed as a maid, and here I thought you’d be wearing a cost-“Chloe winces as a tiny fists jabs in her side from her purse. “I mean its awful plain for what you can do” she corrects herself flicking the purse away from her tender sides.

“That’s because there’s more to it, Marionette do the thing” Alya says with a large knowing smile, Marionette mimics the grin and stands in at the front of the room. Everyone watches in anticipation as she begins to spin around, Alya taking out her phone to record.

And everyone loses their god damned minds

She opens up the sleeve part of the dress and the plain dress is swallowed up by a black dress poofing seemingly out of nowhere, this one sparkled like the night sky, and had a pattern of green cat prints decorating the skirt. Marionette leans her head back to drop the rag off to reveal her beautiful curled bangs; she nods to Alya who shuffles though her bag to find a crown and puts it on her friends head. This crown even had a pair of cat ears in the design.

“Whoa…” is all Adrian can say watching from the door, Nino patting him on the shoulder to snap him out of his trance.

“I’m Chat-erella” Marionette giggles obviously proud of her costumes reaction.

“That is so cool…wait so that’s why…” Adrian trails off looking down at his own costume; he wore a black suit with a red and black tie. He also had clear ladybug wings decorated at the back; large enough to be visible but not in the way. 

“Alya did you set us up?” Adrian accuses while Marionette turns as red as his spots, the whole class laughs enjoying the scene in front of them. 

“How could I pass the opportunity up?” Alya smirks taking Marionette’s hand to put the two together, Nino simply rolls his eyes at his girlfriend’s actions. 

“By the way Nino what’s with your costume? I thought we were going to be a pair” Alya asks seeing as Nino was wearing a giant banana costume rather than a devil or angel.

“I lost track of time and this was all the store had left”

Marionette recovers from Alya’s shipping scheme enough to get her treat hiding outside the classroom, and walks to each desk to give them a small vanilla cake shaped like a mouse.  
She pauses at Nathanial’s spot curious what was behind the hood, Nath takes the small cake and flashes a smile. Vicious fangs make Marionette’s skin crawl, but she manages a polite smile of her own. 

Rose runs out of patience and jumps from her seat to run over to Nath, who had broken the mouse cake in two to in order to feed the bottomless pit that was named Duusu later.

“Nath I know you’re wearing a costume under there let us see already” she orders giving an excited jump, causing her large white wings to bounce. 

For the first time in a while Nathanial feels the burning gaze as everyone turns to look at him, suddenly feeling like his costume was stupid. Still he had promised Duusu so he sighed and pushed the hood back.

His hair was up in hundreds of tiny braids each sprayed with a little black at the end, each braid also had tiny beads to look like eyes and the black was meant to be the tongue. His face had the illusion of red and green scales thanks to the power of Halloween makeup, and he snapped open his eyes to reveal red silted irises. 

“Oh cool, Medusa right?” Rose says above the oohs from the rest of the class, Juleka getting up from her seat to get a better look.

“Just a gorgon but yea basically” he corrects flashing a set of fangs within his normally goofy grin.

“Whoa, if I was into guys I’d totally be into you right now” Juleka says with a teasing smirk, holding up one of the snake braids playfully. 

The teacher starts clapping her hands loudly to indicate she wanted to get class started and everyone slowly makes their way to their seats.  
Class had only been going on for a five minutes when an update from the Lady blog buzzed Nathaniel's phone, using Ivan for cover he opens the message to find that an akuma like being had been sighted near one of the entrances of the Paris catacombs. He tensed seeing the photo that was supposed to be the akuma; it was a rotted green leg of some sort of animal, the rest of the creature was hidden by the darkness. 

Marionette asked to be allowed to leave for the bathroom but was quickly shut down by the teacher, telling her to wait until break, Nath had a feeling Paon was going to be late to this akuma battle. He glanced at the photo again, and maybe that was a good thing.

Suddenly a large red shock wave rippled through the classroom, blinding everyone for a moment, when it dies down everyone is shaken but nothing seemed to have changed.

That is until Rose got up to see if her wings were okay and she was launched into the air by them coming to life, she screams for help and it’s Juleka that comes to her rescue. Using her own wings to catch her and get her back to the ground, a faint blush on her cheeks when Rose gives her a giant hug in thanks.

Nathanial hears a hiss by his ear and screams when he sees some of his braids had become living snakes attached to his head; his screams attract the attention of Ivan who instinctively tries to hit the tiny snakes with his staff. But he makes the dooming mistake of making eye contact with Nath, and then with a flash of white he becomes stone. 

“Hold on Nath I got you” Kim calls taking off his sunglasses and throwing them towards Nath who had covered his eyes with his hands to avoid turning anyone else. Physics takes a seat as the sunglasses boomerang back to Kim and smack him in the head; apparently he had “cool guy” powers now. 

The class erupts in screams as they become their costumes, Mylene shrinking down into a kitty, Sabrina disappearing and a rock star stood in her place, Max feeling rather hallow, Chloe’s armor suddenly getting really heavy and causing her to fall out of her seat. Alya and Lila were the only two having fun trying out a little levitation; Marionette was freaking out as she would do regardless of costume and Nino was silent but probably wishing he hadn’t gone as a banana.

Nathanial keeps his head down as he rushes to grab Kim’s glasses which the athlete is more than happy to provide, thankfully the glasses seemed to work and for when he glanced at the teacher she remained organic. 

“How come Alix didn’t change” Kim comments 

“Hey!” the she-troll snaps offended

Luckily with all the chaos happening it made it very easy to slip out of class, Nath hoped his little friends were friendly as they slithered and hissed atop his head. 

“Thank goodness I saved my costume for tonight” Duusu comments to herself.

Nath ran as fast as he could to the schools exit towards the dumpsters in the back, running past a herd of animals, some supernatural creatures and even several (not) ladybugs more interested with playing with their yo-yos than stopping the akuma. 

“Okay Duusu, feathers-“

Nathanial couldn’t finish as he collides with someone with enough speed to send them both to the ground, luckily it didn’t seem like they heard him.

“Adrian what are you doing back here?”

“I was just throwing out an apple, what are you doing back here?” Adrian shoots back trying to appear as natural as possible and failing terribly. 

“I was just...trying to avoid turning anyone else to stone; at least your costume doesn’t do that.” Nath answers pushing some of the small reptiles down as they hissed a warning at the modal, Adrian nods in understanding and runs off to another hiding spot. Duusu flies out once the coast was clear, mouth full of vanilla mice cake. 

“I think transforming will get rid of those snakes for a while” Duusu claims licking some frosting off her lip, one of the longer snakes goes for her treat and Duusu squeals trying to get out of reach.

“No time to waste than, Duusu Feathers Out”

Adrian sighs in relief allowing a very annoyed Plagg out of his pocket once they had disappeared behind several trees, Plagg opened his mouth to complain but Adrian shushes him by transforming into Chat Noir. As tempting as it was to try taking on an akuma as a smartly dressed ladybug, he would require his night vision to see in the catacombs.

It didn’t take long for the ladybug gang to meet up at the catacombs main entrance, Ladybug laid out a plan in case they needed to split up. Rena and Chat both had night vision so they had to be with Paon or Ladybug at all times to guide them, Queen Bee glowed when she flew so she was the most valuable teammate for them. Any other time Bee would have been ecstatic to hear that, but going into a cramped dark graveyard prevented any excitement.  
Paon did not like the catacombs, not one bit. It was far too narrow for his speed to be of any use, it was cold, dark and wet, and there were bones everywhere. 

“These Paris catacombs give me the crepes” Chat says after a few minutes walking down the tunnel, his voice bouncing off the walls.

“Never mind the puns Chat, we need to find this akuma, Rena can you make a…” Ladybug trails off discovering the fox hero was no longer at the back of the group.

“Rena, where are you?”

The only sounds are the dripping of water nearby and the pounding of hearts in their ears, Ladybug forces herself to calm down.

“Rena this isn’t funny, show yourself” she commands angrily starting to feel like the skulls were watching her with no eyes. 

“Let’s get going, she’s bound to get bored if we don’t react” Bee suggests gripping Paon’s hand in a death grip, Paon holding to both reassure the two of them. 

“Right and so we don’t get lost” Chat agrees with her and stops to rearrange some bones in the shape of an arrow pointing towards where they came from.

It felt like they were wondering for hours when a loud growl gets the groups attention, everyone raises their weapons ready to strike whatever was coming. 

“BOO!”

Rena Rouge appears from the darkness in front of Ladybug’s face, almost getting punched in the nose for her efforts. Paon and Chat both give horror movie worthy screams and Bee clings to Paon from behind, Rena howls with laughter.

“Oh you guys should have seen the looks on your faces” Rena says in between gasps holding her stomach “I’m sorry but you can’t expect no tricks from the fox on Halloween and….what are you staring at?” her voice gaining a nervous edge.

“It’s right behind me isn’t it?” 

“Purr-ect” Chat answers and Rena slowly turns around. A large green rotting bull stood before her, his eyes were a spooky white and he stood upright holding a massive axe in his arms.

Rena screams, the rest of the gang screams, and the Minotaur screams but there’s no ice cream to be found. 

Chat recovers and extends his baton to hit the Minotaur in the eye, causing it to roar in rage and swing his massive weapon. Rena jumps out of harm’s way coughing at the bone dust caused by the beast hitting the wall. The whole place seems to rattle in an earthquake, causing bones to fall and scatter all over the place. 

“We need to get out of here” Paon cries turning and running away from the bull, Bee following suite still clinging onto him for dear life. Ladybug smashes a skull away using her Yo-yo and scans the akuma, the object could be anything, but best bet was either the axe in his hands or the ring in his nose. The beast roars again and Rena grabs Ladybug as they are almost swallowed by mounds of grave dirt and dust. 

“What’s the plan Bugaboo?” Chat calls as they run aimlessly though the tunnels, Paon leading the charge using bee as a flashlight.

“Uh…let’s try this, Lucky charm” Ladybug says and catches a ball of yarn.

“Oh good idea, let’s knit him a sweater” Bee snaps sarcastically, Ladybug glares at her but understands she’s panicked. Ladybug glances back at the monster behind them ready to slice them for his dinner.

“Bee slow him down with a honey trap” Ladybug orders her teammate, Bee buzzes in fear but does as she’s told. The thick golden liquid coating the floor behind the group, the Minotaur puts one hoof in the substance and falls on his face. The more he struggles the more the sticky goo covers him holding him in place, he roars in annoyance. 

“I didn’t think it would work that well” Ladybug comments looking guiltily at her lucky charm, maybe she didn’t need it after all. 

A horrible laughter comes from somewhere rattling the skulls making their teeth fall out, and the honey coating the beast is lapped away by thousands of little bats. The group gulps as the Minotaur stands back up now even more pissed, Ladybug’s mind is racing with possible plans when a glow catches her eye, when she pointed the yarn to the south tunnel it glowed, pointed at the west it stopped. 

“Everybody run” Rena doesn’t have to say twice as the chase resumes down the unstable tomb, she was trying not to panic but she couldn’t find those arrows Chat had been making. As far as she knew they were totally lost in one of the worst places to get lost in all of France.

Ladybug picks up speed and points the yarn in front of her, it started to lose its ball form as it untied itself trailing behind them. 

“That’s going to lead him right to us” Paon comments unsure of this plan.

“Which is exactly what we want” Ladybug claims making the team take a left than a right following the yarns glow, soon a light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. 

A crowd had gathered at the entrance of the Paris Catacombs, waiting anxiously for the hero’s to appear. They break into cheers when the Ladybug and company appear from the tomb, but are quickly silenced when the beasts roars again. 

“Now what?” Chat asks

Ladybug says nothing but watches as the Minotaur reaches the doors and smacks dead into them. Instead of the doors being destroyed the beast is bounced back like they were an unbreakable force. 

“Like the old Greek tale, the Minotaur can’t leave his maze” Ladybug explained swinging over to the dazed bull and grabbing the massive ring hanging from his nostrils. It takes all five of them to pluck the jewelry and smash it on the stone below. 

With a flick of her wrist the escaping akuma is captured and purified, leaving a teenager with a nose ring in the bulls place. Two other boys rush to the victim and apologize for leaving him in the catacombs alone. Ladybug gives all three of them a good scorning for going down there without a guide in the first place.

Paon breathe a sigh of relief watching the scene, messaging the hand bee had nearly suffocated in her panic. Bee had her hands behind her back in a silent apology.  
Suddenly a hiss is heard by Paon’s ear, he swats the snake that had appeared from his hair in shock. The reptile falls apart into strands of hair again, leaving Paon with the horrible truth that the akuma responsible was still out there. 

The same horrible laugh is heard and thousands of bats appear out of the catacombs mouth. People screech and run as the bats bite at their hands and hair. 

“This day is going to drive us batty” Chat says extending his baton and spinning it to wack multiple bats down, they disappear with a puff of smoke.

The bats swarm together and a figure appears from them, he wore a black cape and was dressed for a Victorian style tea party. His bat minions swarm and grab Bee kicking and screaming all the way. He throws his cape out and smiles with some wicked fangs.

“Let this be known as the day the sun set forever” The akuma shouts in a thick but fake Transylvanian accent. He transforms into a giant bat and flies off as the group begins chase. 

“Ladybug you go recharge, we’ll keep bat boy busy” Rena calls once they had landed on a rooftop far from the crowd’s eyes. Ladybug nods and heads off to do just that, Rena joins up with the boys.

“You will never defeat me, for I am the strongest akuma there is, I am the night itself” The akuma cries deciding that of course the Eiffel tower was the best place to use as his prison. Bee squirms in the ropes he had produced to tie her up. The first beep goes off making her panic come back full force, she had to recharge and fast.

“Owl be the judge of that” Paon cries, landing powerfully in front of Night bat, Chat and Rena following suit weapons twirling ready to fight. 

“Man that’s what I was going to say” Chat playfully whines

“Too bad, I’m the bird here” 

“I’ll take you all down to a count” Night bat yells sending a wave of bats towards them; the three easily dodge or smack them out of the way. 

“He’s really raising the stakes” Chat chirps spinning and whacking one bat right into Night bat, the akuma hisses and thousands of bats swarm around them. 

“Now Paon” the newly energized Ladybug cries wielding a giant pumpkin.

“Royal Strike” Paon releases the powerful move blowing all the bats far away, Bee feels the wind as only a small breeze but has no time to think about it as the second warning is heard. She snaps the ropes using her super strength and was about to fly off when a hand grabs hers, Rena puts a finger to her lips and gives a wink.

“You heroes are bloody pains in the neck” Night bat cries and reaches for his captive, his hands grabbing something in foil instead. Night looks at the candy in his hands with complete confusion as the bee hero was nowhere to be seen. 

“Trick or treat” Rena yells and the candy starts popping and frying like tiny fireworks, the Night crying out and dropping it to the ground shielding his face. Ladybug uses his moment of distress to throw her pumpkin on his head; it cracked and carved itself into a silly jack o lantern face. 

“Let this be ‘bone’” Chat starts walking up to the akuma who trembled in his fruity helmet.

“I am the true pun-kin king” with a slash Chat tears the Night’s cape in two, expecting an akuma to reveal itself since there was nothing else on him that stood out. But instead of a butterfly, both the cape and the Night dissolve into dust. 

“Uh…that’s not supposed to happen” Ladybug comments poking at the dust.  
Beeping is heard from Paon, Chat’s and Rena’s miraculous so ladybug shoos them away to recharge while she tried to figure out what went wrong.

With a blue flash inside an empty warehouse Nathanial gasps for breath sliding down to the floor, Duusu snagging food from his bag without missing a beat.

“Sheesh this is a lot of work for one day” he mumbles stretching out his tail….wait tail?  
He looks down in horror to find his legs had morphed together and a long red snake tail slithered in their place. Nathanial screams pushing himself back with his hands. His back hits the wall and he sees his hands had become scaly and had claws. Duusu looks up from her sandwich to join in the screaming just as the snakes on Nat’s head trying to eat her sandwich or her entirely. 

“I don’t think I can transform you again” Duusu says dropping the sandwich and flying down to where the pin normally rested on Nathanial’s chest. “My miraculous is gone” she pats the area that once was clothing but was now just more scales. 

“This isn’t good”

Meanwhile far above Paris a broom could be seen flying across the rooftops, the figure on top laughs with glee. Her illusion spell had worked, and now she had enough time to give the biggest trick of all, turning all of Paris against Ladybug and Chat Noir by turning them all into monsters. Hawk moth starts up his communication with her, making her flinch with fear.

“What have you done?” the booming voice cried

“I have turned all of Paris into their Halloween costumes, the chaos will bring Ladybug and Chat Noir to their knees”

“…you have got to be the dumbest akuma I have ever created”

“What, why would you say that?”

“Let me ask you this: who is the most popular super hero duo right now?”

“Chat Noir and Ladybug of course”

“And what do children like dressing up as?”

“Their hero’s….oh”

The dawning of her mistake comes a little late as she sees an ocean of red and black underneath her, thousands of Paris citizens transformed into Ladybug and Chat Noir like a photocopier gone mad. She tries to fly away but several yo-yo’s latch on to her broom and drag her down to the earth, the real Ladybug stands amongst her many excited clones greeting the akuma. 

“Nice trick but I’m more of a treat girl” Ladybug purrs tossing the broom into the crowd where it’s ripped to shreds, Ladybug does her job and captures the akuma within her yo-yo. On the count of three every Ladybug in the crowd throws their yo-yo up in the air, and thousands of little beetles surround and change them back into different people wearing the same spotted costume. 

 

Hours later Trick or Treating had finally begun among the streets of Paris, Paon stood with the group waiting for Ladybug. He was silently happy that he had his own two legs back.

“There’s the boo-tiful lady now” Chat purrs getting everyone’s attention.

“Thanks for waiting guys; my favorite bakery had a surprise gift for us” Ladybug calls landing in front of them holding a large delivery box in her hands. “Some special miraculous themed treats” she says opening the box and handing her teammates the corresponding cupcake.

Chat’s cake was chocolate with a fudgy centre, decorated with white icing and a chocolate cat paw. Ladybug’s was red velvet with a bunch of cherry buttercream decorated with tiny red and white marshmallows. Rena’s was a vanilla cake with a surprise sour grapefruit filling within, but it was all made up for with the sweet orange icing decorated with fox tail sprinkles . Bees was of course a sweet honey cake decorated with little candy bees and a lemon frosting that was just the right amount of sweet and acidic. Paon’s was the most decorated of them all, an angel’s food cake with blue raspberry icing. Edible pearls made a circle and sugar glass created a peacocks crest in the middle. 

They were almost too fantastic to eat, but the teens devoured the treats enjoying every bite. 

“I think it’s my favorite bakery too” Chat purrs and Ladybug wipes some frosting off his cheek, making the poor cat blush terribly. 

“Come on, the night is young and I want to get some candy” Rena calls handing everyone a trick or treat bag and jumping off the roof. Halloween was only one night a year, may as well make patrol fun this night.

 

“Are you sure you can’t hang with us” Rose asks as she and Juleka accompany Nathanial to his father’s house, the girls were off to a small Halloween party being held by the school. 

“I told you guys, I’m completely wiped from trick or treating, not to mention my scaly situation” Nath says tossing some nonliving snakes behind his head.

“Besides I got enough candy to last me a few weeks” he adds holding up the bag which was holding on together by its last strings, trick or treating as a hero had its perks.

“Aw, okay we’ll save you some cake” Juleka says patting Rose on the head as she pretended to be really sad about her red headed friend not joining them. 

“Nice decoration by the way” She adds, not noticing the look of confusion on Nathaniel's face, his dad hated Halloween and never put up decorations. He looks in the direction she was looking and sees the freakiest fake spider he’d ever seen, it was placed on the door and nearly took up all the space on it with its legs. Its beady eyes seemed to stare at him as the three approached.

Nath cautiously goes to grab the doorknob, a real feel of unease rising from him. Juleka laughs at him and pokes the decoration several times.

“See its fake” she purrs as Nath opens the door, “See you later Nath” Juleka and Rose say with a wave and start heading to their party. 

They hear the door close and for whatever reason Rose looks back at the door and gasps, the spider was gone. 

“Must have fallen when he slammed the door, come on” Juleka urged and it was soon forgotten about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun  
> So I've read plenty of Halloween fics with miraculous ladybug but none that included the Paris Catacombs(at least what I could find), so I found it necessary to create a Halloween chapter using that particular spooky part of Paris, never been to them but if I ever get a chance to go to Paris it will be a spot on my list.  
> I've had the idea for Marionette's Halloween costume for a while, and I think its awsome  
> For Nat in most Halloween fics he's usually Leonardo or something among those lines which is fine, but I wanted something that really stood out so I recreated a costume I did myself at 15. Although I think Nath pulled it off better.  
> Hope you all enjoyed and be ready for the next chapter coming soon.


	11. Arachnophobia

Chapter 11 arachnophobia  
Nathanial entered the house to be greeted by silence, no TV on the sports channel, no loud thumping either. Nath calls for his dad first in French then in German, his voice swallowed up by the empty hallways. 

“Must have gone to bed” he mutters taking out his phone to plug in the hallway socket, Duusu taking the opportunity to land on his shoulder as he stood up.

“We should go to that bakery ladybug was talking about, I can’t get enough of that frosting” she chirps licking her lips.

“I didn’t know you could taste what I could when we transform” Nath admits tossing the Halloween bag by his bed and beginning to untangle the braids. 

“Us kwami can sense our holders emotions and sometimes their senses when we’re transformed, helps us to keep you alive and safe.” 

“That reminds me-“Nath starts pausing on one braid “when we first started out you would talk to me sometimes, it usually gave me a headache but then you just stopped. What was that all about?” He looks over to Duusu expecting her to explain but instead she looks as pale as the ghost marshmallows.

“Nathanial…I can’t talk to you when transformed…none of us can” she starts with her voice shaking, “the only way that could happen would mean…Nooroo…Nooroo!” Duusu pauses and flaps her arms like a chicken with her head cut off. 

Nathanial can only watch helplessly as Duusu flies around the room honking like an ordinary peacock, any other time it would have been hilarious but not right now.

“Slow down, who’s Nooroo?” Nath successfully manages to jump and catch the panicking bird and land on the bed for a soft landing.

“He’s the moth kwami, if he uses his power on another miraculous he’s able to communicate with them” Duusu explained so quickly Nath had to use his thumb to massage her back to calm her down enough to be understandable.

“That’s why I went to Master Fu’s something is wrong with our miraculous, with me” she finishes allowing Nath to wipe away her tears she hadn’t noticed had begun to fall. 

“Well then let’s go to this Master Fu, I’ll grab us some candy for along the way and…”

“No” Duusu cuts Nath off, “ Master Fu doesn’t like people to know who he is, I’ll have to go alone” she finishes sucking in her tears to gather her strength.

Nathanial sinks deflated but nods his head in understanding, he reaches into his bag to pull out a chocolate peanut butter cup.

“Okay Duusu, be safe out there” He hands her the candy which she accepts; she then flies up to rest her forehead against his in a silent goodbye. 

“You’re coming back right” Nath adds as she opens the window.

“As long as you have my miraculous, I’ll always find my way back” and with that she flew off.

Oh this was so worth the wait, the spider purred as she made her way down the hall. It had been easy enough to take care of the larger male when she had arrived, wrapping him in a cocoon outside enough to immobilize but not harm. Years’ worth of pain, anger, loneliness, and regret oozed off the walls. And she was happy to absorb it all, her form growing as she did so. Bones cracked and formed underneath her skin to withhold the form, she shed the skin of her exoskeleton leaving it as she neared the door, fangs dripping in anticipation. She waited until the voices dyed down and she could hear the steady breathing of the boy sleeping, and then crawled through the door. Her feet didn’t make a sound as she crawled up to the ceiling and approached the sleeping figure 

Nathanial had been sleeping for only a few minutes when something hairy poked his cheek, he swatted it away still half asleep. 

“You back already Duusu?” he muttered forcing his eyes open.

It took a few seconds to register the monster on his ceiling, a spider the size of horse with purple streaks that glowed in the dark. Nath screams and throws the covers off to run away only for a sticky web to pin his left arm to the bed. Panicked he pulls at the goo trying to free his arm as the spider slides down from the ceiling and grabs him with some of her legs. She threw him on his back on the bed and pinned his body using her own, Nath kicks and screams trying to get the demon off of him. Annoyed she spits some webbing over his mouth to muffle his cries for help; using her Pedipalps (those small arms at the front) she brings his torso towards her awaiting fangs. Nath uses his free arm to feel around his bedside table knocking off the alarm clock and the glass of water from the frantic movement, a pen manages to get within his grip and he plunges the device into one of the spider’s cold white eyes.

“Miserable brat” The spider shrieks rising up from the blinding pain and falling awkwardly off the bed. Her legs flailed around trying to straighten her body back upright, Nath uses this opportunity to use the pen and free his left arm. Nathanial tries to run but trips over his candy bag losing his chance to escape as the spider shoots a webbing at his feet just as he reaches the door, dragging him back underneath her massive form. He kicks her in the gut trying desperately to get her off; she ignores this and plunges her fangs into his neck. His kicks slow down and his screams die down to whimpers as the venom begins to spread throughout his body. 

Duusu repeatedly bangs against the familiar Chinese meditation shop’s window, slapping her face onto the glass to peer in but not seeing anyone. Anxious she flies over to the front door hoping to see the Master returning from a walk but instead is greeted by a note on the door saying “Gone trick or treating, be back in an hour”.

“Trick or treating, you old fart I need you right now” the several million old god whined hitting the paper in her frustration. 

A horrible feeling washes over her, a tug in the direction she came from hitting her so hard her stomach churns. Something was very wrong.

“My pea-chick” Duusu cries forgetting the old master as she zooms back to his father’s house, how could she have left her boy all alone on a night like this? The dread and guilt only gets heavier as she renters the old home, still she prays he had only gotten greedy with the candy and had a real bad stomach ache. 

The prayers are crushed when she sees the silhouette of the demon standing in the boy’s bedroom, looming over what could only be her pea-chick trapped underneath. From the doorway she could see Nathanial lying on the floor with the spiders fangs pierced into his neck, his face and arms gaining a purple hue as he struggled to breathe. 

Duusu almost flies straight in but logic manages to hold her back, she couldn’t take on a demon alone. She had to find help.  
She spots the phone still harmlessly charging in the hallway, the only normal thing in the house. Frantically she struggles but opens the phone up and finds the contact list, Side bang buddy, literal flower, DJ man…was it too much to ask for Nath to give his contacts normal names?

Her eyes fall on “Sparkle boy” and she knew only one person would get a nickname like that, her nub hesitates on the call button. During the switch she had learned who the cat was behind the mask, but by calling she would reveal Nathaniel's biggest secret to the blond modal. Her nub trembles as she stares the contact name down, a pained gasp and shuffle from the bedroom brings her back to reality.

Secret Identity be damned, her pea-chick was in danger. 

 

“Fangs for asking how did I miss that?” Adrian asks pacing back and forth in his massive room, notebook and pencil in hand.

“You can’t do all the puns in one night Adrian” Plagg mutters with his mouth full of a combination of chocolate and cheese.

“Yea but I have to be prepared in case there’s an opportunity” Adrian replies scratching a few more puns down as he thought of them.

“How about this: you can’t skele-run from my skele-puns” 

“Like Ladybug will throw you at an akuma again”

“Hey sometimes she likes them” 

Adrian looks up when his phone starts buzzing from the bed, curious who would be calling at this time of night he picks it up to see the pic of Nathanial he had taken during one of their gaming sessions. Along with the text “French Yurio calling”, confused he opens the call. 

“Hey Nath how’s it going?” he starts pretending to be tired by throwing in a yawn; his friend didn’t need to know he was up at midnight thinking up puns.

“Chat no time to talk you need to get over here this instant” a high pitched voice cries at the other end of the phone.

“Wait...Duusu, why are you using Nathaniel's phone?” Adrian blurts out loudly making Plagg look up at him.

“Please I can’t fight this on my own, my pea-chick is AH!” the kwami screams can be heard on Adrian’s phone then cuts out completely, leaving Adrian with the beeping of an ended call. 

“Come on Plagg we need to go” Adrian calls and for once Plagg doesn’t complain as they transform once more and pounce off into the early morning. 

Chat was thankful he had bothered to ask one day whereabouts Nathaniel's dad lived. Since that had to be where he was, as far as possible identity reveal was concerned he had blocked out any thoughts on it. Freaking out over it wouldn’t help him fight against whatever had attacked Duusu. 

He lands on the rooftop on the house and sees a large figure strapped to the side using some sort of webbing, biting back a gag of disgust he uses his claw to slice the cocoon and free the man inside. Ralph lands with a thunk on the ground below, Chat flinching as the tall man lands on his head.

“Hey what’s going on here?” Chat asks once he had decided the man had recovered enough; Ralph looked up at the cat hero and made a sound of confusion. 

“I don’t know, was going for a smoke when this thing attacked me and wound me up in that gunk” Ralph explains pulling off the webbing from his arms, “I was expecting Nath to come back soon….Nath….Nathanial is in there with that thing!” he cried turning and racing to the front door ignoring Chat calling for him. 

“Look sir, I’m the super hero here, why don’t you stay outside and I’ll go save him” Chat orders sternly grabbing the larger man by his wrist that was already twisting the door knob. Ralph looks at him with such a mixture of pain and worry it weakens the hold. 

“I understand what you’re saying Chat, but I can’t run out on him again” Ralph says with such strength it seems to stun him for a moment, he throws open the door and charges in with Chat following close behind. 

Houses normally had energy to them, good or bad usually was trapped by stone and wood changing people’s emotions when they entered or left. This house was so empty of old energy that perhaps it changed Ralph slightly, old emotions gone for the time being leaving the man open and raw. When they reached the room the giant spider can hardly make out a hiss before Ralph tackles her off her pray. 

Chat kneels by Nathanial now transformed into Paon, his suit glowing softly as if to try and stop the poison that was visible though his skin. Paon opened his eyes and looked over to the cat grunting as he did so; Chat stops him from wasting energy from moving and picks the nearly unconscious hero up. 

“He’s my son, he’s my son” Ralph was chanting as he threw fist after fist into the demon, she roars and slaps him into the dresser. Turning the furniture into splinters on the floor and leaving Ralph unconscious, Chat hurries to scoop Paon into an easy to carry position and races out of the room. The spider giving chase using the walls to gain on the two boys, Chat turns and uses his baton to hit her eyes which makes her absolutely roar in pain.

Chat tries to find a window or door outside but instead runs straight into a corner, the demon hisses in glee as the cat looks for a way out finding none.

“Stay back” Chat orders slapping the ground with his baton, he spots a large chandelier hanging near the giant nightmare and gets an idea. He places Paon down as far as he could in the corner and starts hitting the spider’s legs with his weapon and summoning a cataclysm with a free hand. 

He doesn’t expect the spider to reel itself up on its hind legs making it appear even larger in the cramped hallway, fangs going right for his neck. Chat screams and reflectively extends his baton at the creature and throws his arms in front of him, waiting for it to land atop him.  
Chat hears a horrible screech and looks to see why, his powered claw had touched the spider’s chest and was slowly hardening and decaying in front of him. By total accident he answers his question on what happened when he used cataclysm on a living thing. The spider hisses one last time before the rot reaches her head and freezes her in place, Chat walks over and pulls his baton still stuck in the third eye socket and watches the demon crumble into black sooty dust. 

Chat doesn’t have the chance to pull a one liner to lighten the mood as he feels Paon grab him by the shoulder; he turns to see his feathered partner looking at him with no visible emotion.

“We need to get Ladybug, come on I’ll carry you to the meeting spot” Chat starts trying to call Ladybug on his baton only for Paon to grab him by the throat. 

“Paon…what-“ Chat is cut off as Paon throws him with such force he goes right though the wall onto the grass outside, Paon is on him again so quickly Chat barley knows what’s happening until they’re on the roof. He gasps for breath feeling bruises starting to form on his neck, but Paon is relentlessly cutting off the others air supply.

Chat sees Paon’s miraculous had changed from blue to black and the signature butterfly mask had formed over Peon’s face, flickering into existence in front of the expressionless boy.

“The ring, the ring”

His body was moving all on its own, Nathanial could feel his own two hands choke one of Paris’s famous hero’s. His legs pinned the breathless hero down as his right arm grabbed the ringed hand with intent to remove the powerful jewelry. 

“Paon…snap out of it” Chat was crying using whatever energy he had left to fight back against his teammate, whatever was moving Paon’s body made him punch the cat in the nose. Paon focused his strength on the arm holding Chat down and managed to gain control of it for a moment, grabbing his other arm and wrestling with it.

“Come on Paon, no, no, no” Paon can hear everything his pleading teammate cries and wants to scream in frustration as he loses the battle with his arm. With no care towards the person the ring is ripped right off, he winces inside as bones crack and possibly gets pulled out of place. His body moves to push Chat off the building and into the trash cans below, a yellow-green glow enveloping him as he was swallowed up by the mounds of trash. 

Chat’s civilian form is hidden underneath a bag as Paon peers down, the cruel voice that must have been Hawk moth called to him again.

“Go down there, let me see his face” 

Paon has no choice but to obey and jumps down looming over his partner; he pushes the bag away and stares at the person underneath.  
Nathanial can’t see what the akuma or demon sees but it must have surprised it. It weakens its hold in shock and allows Nath to take control of his body for a few seconds.

“Chat…Help me” 

Adrian can only watch as one of his friends begs for his help, only for his wide eyes to dull again and he uses his fans to launch himself into the air. Never had an akuma victim asked for help while possessed and he couldn’t imagine what Paon was going though. Was he even an akuma victim? He had fought against his own body as if it was some other form of possession. 

“We need to get the girls” Plagg calls ripping Adrian from his thoughts. Adrian nods and finds an old torn hoodie among the trash and regrettably puts it on, wincing at the stench of cigars and old fruit. He throws on the over sized hood and hopes that will be enough to hide his identity; Plagg flies by his side as they run towards the meeting place.  
By the time they reach the meeting spot Adrian felt like he had just run around the world twice, Plagg had cheated midway and was resting behind the hood complaining about the smell (because cheese smells so good). Adrian uses the fire escape and an old pipe to climb to the top, never had he realised just how effortlessly he moved across Paris as Chat before. 

“Come on, yes” he cries as an old spotlight he finds at the top still works, without logic he turns the spotlight around in the sky. Hoping it would be enough to signal the other hero’s.

His light show pays off and soon he sees the three other hero’s approaching the roof, he waves to get their attention than jumps away as Bee nearly land a kick on his head. 

“That’s not for civilian’s to play with, go home” Queen Bee snaps rubbing some sleep out of her eye. 

“Hold up, it’s me Chat Noir” Adrian cries keeping his voice low as if that was enough to disguise his voice, without the kwami charm he couldn’t risk talking normal. 

“Chat, why are you in civilian form?” Ladybug asks holding her arms in front of her chest.

“Paon…something happened to Paon and he stole my miraculous” Adrian explains keeping his head down amazed that the hood was working.

“YOUR MIRACULOUS WAS STOLEN!” Ladybug shouts rage ripping though her body, Rena and Bee both take a step back as she stomps over to the cowering lad, “how did this even happen?

“It’s not like he took it easily” Adrian defends holding up his hand which still had one finger popped out, the girls flinch but Ladybug carefully takes it to try and sooth it. Adrian blushes but it’s covered by the stinky hoodie, Plagg makes a sound of disgust and flies out in front of Ladybug’s face. 

“If we don’t get it back now Paon will give it to Hawk moth, so let’s go” the grumpy cat snaps paws on his hips.

“Now hold on, we don’t even know where he’s go-“

“Found him” Rena cuts Ladybug off and shows everyone a screen on her flute that showed a small red dot moving quickly though streets, “I put a tracker on him a while ago, fox sense” she adds tapping the side of her head.

“Smart fox” Ladybug compliments and Rena beams with pride, Bee and Adrian roll their eyes as if they were children watching mother praise a sibling. 

“Come on Chat, tell me everything on the way” Ladybug says grabbing Adrian and swinging them both off following Rena and Bee; it would have been easier for Rena or even Bee to carry him since they could fly. But it looked like Ladybug was in full protection mode and was also keeping Chat captive to give him a good scorning.

 

“He’s stopping…here” Rena trails off seeing the Agreste mansion in front of them, a silence falls over them as they spot a large butterfly shaped window normally hidden by parts of the building.

“That’s impossible, fa-Mr. Agreste has been akumantized before” Adrian nearly slips up but catches himself.

“Maybe Hawk moth is using Mr. Agreste’s house as a base and threatening him to keep it a secret” Queen Bee theorized putting her hands over her mouth in shock.

“Hawk moth is in there…” Ladybug states quietly, just realizing they’d soon be fighting the person behind all the akuma’s in Paris, the one behind her teammates forced betrayal. It all felt so sudden. 

“You guys scout the area first, I need to talk with my kwami about how to free Paon” Ladybug says putting Chat down and holding onto his non damaged hand “you find a place to hide until we can get your miraculous back”

“Not happening LB I’m not letting you face Hawk moth without me” Adrian says tightening his grip on Ladybug’s wishing he didn’t have to hide his unmasked face at that moment, he needed to see his lady’s face. 

 

“Aw nice to meet you face to face Paon, did you enjoy our chats?” Hawk moth coos towards the blank faced hero as he slides though the open window in Hawk moths lair. Paon said nothing but held up the ring, and began walking over to him.

“It seems my most effective akuma is not an akuma at all, if you’d be so kind” Hawk moth purrs opening his hand out for Paon to drop the ring in, Paon holds it over but refuses to drop it. Hawk moths expression turns though confusion to frustration.

“Still fighting? Shall I remind you who you belong to little bird?” Hawk moths tone goes to a dangerous hiss and he holds his staff in front of Paon’s face, the top part glows a soft purple. Paon’s miraculous glows as well and starts to spread across the costume, he manages a whimper as the dark purple light consumes his body

When the light dissolves Paon’s suit had changed, where it used to be blue was now black, what was green was now dark purple, and his eyes had changed from their normal colour to red. Hawk moth grins evilly and holds out his hand again, Paon can no longer hold back and slowly begins to place the miraculous in the villain’s greedy hands. 

Glass shatters destroying the silence that had fallen in the butterfly dome, and a high heel shoots between Hawk moth and Paon. Catching the ring in its heel and slamming into the wall on the other side, actually denting and getting stuck in the metal. 

“Sorry to burst your bubble but that doesn’t belong to you” Queen Bee shouts from outside the now shattered butterfly window, the full moon coming into view behind her. 

“Why don’t you buzz off?” Hawk moth hisses as she comes to a landing in front of him with Rena and Ladybug at her sides. A horrible smile appearing when his eyes land on Ladybug, “Paon, get her miraculous now”.

The girls are taken back by the pair of glowing red eyes standing next to hawk moth, the eyes move with incredible speed and launch at Ladybug ready to rip her ears off if need be. Ladybug somehow manages to move out of the way in time, forcing Paon to use his fans to shift his direction away from the wall he nearly slammed into. Hawk moth starts backing away going for the heel holding Chat’s ring. Paon lands next to Rena who tries to hit him with her flute only for him to deflect each attack using the fans. 

Hawk moth heaves and pulls the heel out of the wall pausing as he realizes just how deadly these shoes had to be to cause such damage, Bee zooms over and snatches the ring off before Hawk moth can. 

“Oh a ring how nice, sorry but you’re a little old for me” Bee teases ducking and shifting as Hawk moth swung her shoe at her. 

“I’ll take my shoe as well” with a swing from her giant honey dipper she clobbers the super villain sending him crashing into a pile of resting butterflies, sending them fluttering around the room. Bee catches the flung heel with a free hand and puts it back on her foot, holding the ring in her teeth. 

The darkened Paon spins to trip Rena with his tail feathers, and moves to plunge his fans though her skull. 

“Hey it was me you were after” Ladybug yells getting the attention of her ex-teammate, Paon stomps on Rena’s chest and charges Ladybug. Who leads him right into Queen Bee’s line of attack and she pounds him with the dipper into Hawk moth trying to dust off from the hit. 

“Paon strike them down” Hawk moth orders frustrated, an evil glint in his eyes as Paon spreads his arms out and fires his special attack.

A loud bang is heard and patches of the building come crashing down from the attack, leaving the dome open on the one side to the world. 

“I told those two to scout the area, not go right in and attack” Marionette cries seeing the damage done by a darkened royal strike, Tikki shushes her as an unmasked Chat was still standing guard on the other side of the wall. 

“Okay what do we do Tikki? We can’t destroy his miraculous” Marionette asks using great control to keep her voice steady.

“There is a method to free a possessed soul, but it’s a lot more difficult than breaking an akumantized item, we have to hold him still the entire time” Tikki explains “by holding the miraculous inside the yo-yos light it might be enough to reach him”.

“And then…?” Marionette’s voice edges with worry as she hears the battle continuing around her. 

“Hope he can fight off the possession”

“And if he can’t?”

“Then he’s lost to us”

Marionette doesn’t like that answer, but has no time to talk more as Bee crashes into the wall in front of her. 

“I didn’t see anything” Bee cries covering her eyes with her hands, not opening them until the Ladybug said it was okay. The last thing she wanted to do was expose her hero’s identity so soon, she’d totally hate her if that was the case.

“Okay Bee what’s going on up there?” Ladybug says as soon as she’s back in costume, deciding against scorning her for going against her orders. 

“Paon is really tough, ooh but I got the ring” Bee cries remembering, digging the ring out of her cheek and wiping it off. Ladybug doesn’t hold back a sound of disgust.

“Sorry it was all I could think of to keep it on me”

Adrian taps her on the shoulder still hiding his face behind the hood, “can’t be any worse than this disguise” Bee hands him the ring and he slips it back on. 

Paon finally gets a swing on Ladybug only for her to disappear in a puff of orange smoke, Hawk moth growls realizing the trick and activates what’s left of the domes security system. Missiles fly out and chase Rena around the dome; she hits one missile away in hopes to divert its course for her legs using her flute and gets hit by the explosion. She crashes in front of Hawk moth, who clicks his cane and pulls out a sword hiding within. 

“Bothersome fox” he cries, Rena blocks with her flute but never receives the blow. Chat Noir had appeared lightning fast beside them and had blocked Hawk moths attack with his baton, Hawk moth glares at him.

“My, this is hawk-ward” Chat purrs and launches into a sword fight with the villain.

“You’ve been waiting to say that for a while haven’t you” Rena smirks standing up to fix her ponytail, joining in on the battle with a loud battle cry.

Paon appears in front of Hawk moth spreading his back feathers in an act of challenge, Chat and Rena engage in a dance of dodging swords and razor sharp feathers. Chat manages to pin the tail feathers down with his baton, grinning thinking he had found the one weakness to the dramatic peacock costume. But Paon’s feathers slip out easily as if they were liquid much to Chat’s surprise and spin to smack him away. So that was why Paon’s feathers had never been used against him in past battles, if only his belt tail worked like that. 

Hawk moth lunged after the cat and forced him to step back until he was right at the edge of the broken wall, the cold wind reminding him just how high it was.

“You’re better than this Paon” Rena says with a warning tone, her flute ready to strike her teammate again. Paon looks at her with an unreadable expression, and then scrunches up as he puts his hand on his head.

The real ladybug swings up to where Paon was standing; he was holding his head as if he was in pain. Ladybug stares in horrified awe as he turns to look at her, blood red eyes glared at her like she was pray. 

“Paon…I know you’re still in there, you have to let me help you” she starts cautiously taking small steps toward him. Paon tenses but doesn’t move to attack or flee, continuing to stare her down. Step by step Ladybug gets closer to the blackened bird. Like a game of go stop with a wild animal, Rena stands frozen afraid movement would set him off.

“Just hold still and I’ll use this…” Ladybug slowly takes out her yo-yo and opens it up with her finger; Paon takes one glance and swings his fans at her. Ladybug reacts fast and bends backward to avoid the weapon, feeling the cold wind they whipped out passing her nose by a hair. 

“Now Queen Bee” Ladybug cries and Bee appears behind Paon and grabs him by his wrists and holds him in place, forcing the bird down to his knees with his chest puffed out. A noise escapes Paon’s lips neither human or peacock, as he struggles in her iron grip. 

With a well-placed swing Chat hits Hawk moths throat with enough force that the moth miraculous rips off and rattles off into the darker parts of the dome. Suddenly thousands of white butterflies swarm the two men covering Hawk moth's body completely, Chat growls when the giant bugs cover his eyes as a purple light consumes the room. 

“Paon can you hear me?” Ladybug asks putting her weapon over the miraculous on Paon’s chest, receiving another non-human scream in return. 

“Paon you must hear me!” Ladybug orders tightening her hold over the miraculous as the dark bird shifts quickly trying to get her off. Bee muffles a whine as she holds down the boy she had grown to really like, wrapping one arm around his upper torso and pressing her body against his as if she was hugging him. 

“PAON!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has come to my attention that i have been spelling Paon wrong as Peon and not noticing until just now, in my non-french mind it didn't sound odd. So I will likely go back and try to fix all of that sometime, so sorry for the mistake.


	12. Fox in the (pea)hen house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, in order to help write some of these scenes I used the following songs: control by Halsey, and It’s my life by Bob Jovi. Maybe you’ll get some foreshadowing in them :)

Chapter 12, Fox in the (pea) hen house  
“Paon”  
Nathaniel winced opening his eyes; he was surrounded by some sort of clear liquid. He frantically claws at the substance until he finds a hard part, ripping it down until it bursts open. He slides out into open air, where his lungs expel the fluid and greedily take in air. Paon glances up to see he was in a garden of sorts, filled with green trees and small fish ponds. Most noticeable was the figure staring down at him, Nath jumps to his feet as it moved to approach him.

“Who are you?” Paon snaps stopping the figure in its tracks, an amused smirk on his lips.

The figure says nothing, seeming to scan his counterpart. Paon was blue where he was black, green where he was purple, and had eyes like the ocean compared to his burnt embers. 

“What’s the matter? Not up for a chat?” 

The copy shakes its head; smirk still plastered on its face. The two begin to circle each other, the dark Paon stopping to touch the capsule Paon had been held in. Paon realized it was a giant cocoon of sorts, the other Paon’s smirk dropped from its face as it brought its hand back. He turned back to Paon with a vengeful look. 

“Paon can you hear me?"

“Ladybug…” Paon whispers looking from left to right where was that coming from?

The dark copy charges and leaps into the air, aiming to kick Paon in the chin upon landing. Paon sees it coming and jumps out of the way, the copy smashes the dirt with such force a small crater is formed. Paon summons his fans just as the copy does, but to the copies surprise Paon uses them to create some distance between them. Once he was a school yard away Paon turns and begins running, listening for the voice again. 

Paon runs into the forest part and is reminded of the black forest in his grandma’s hometown, a cracking of sticks makes him look back to see the copy giving chase from the trees. He almost seemed to fly as he jumped from branch to branch, eyes never shifting from his target. Paon growled at him and launched himself into the trees with the fans, putting his feet on a trees trunk. Then with physics only a super hero would allow back flips over top of the dark copy getting behind him, the copy looks back in shock as Paon smacks him down with a blast from his fans. The copy lands in the dirt creating a small dust cloud, still not making a sound. 

Ladybug’s voice rings though the land once again, this time sounding muddy and faint; it makes Paon think of someone shouting underwater. He sees at the end of the woods there was a pool of water that had to be where Ladybug was coming from.

Paon hits the ground running, the copy on his heels. They reach the clearing and the copy grabs onto Peon’s hips to bring them both to the ground. The copy throws him on his back, and Paon grabs the others head with his legs and flips them over. Paon closes the fan and uses it like a short baton, smacking it across the copies face instead of using his fist. The copy grabs his own fan and jabs the closed weapon into the side of Paon’s head, Paon cries out in pain accidentally letting go of his fan as the copy kicks him off.  
The copy charges again as Paon lands and grinds on the dirt, Paon leans on his arms as the copy raises his fans ready to slash. As soon as the copy gets close enough Paon uses the speed against him and pushes him over top using his legs. The copy lands with a splash in the water; Paon takes a second to catch his breath. He walks over to grab his other fan and turns back to the pond, getting down on his knees to get a better look. 

A muffled sound makes Paon move his head closer, not realizing that was a mistake until a black hand reaches out and grabs him by the throat. It drags Paon into the water with one pull; Paon grabs hold of the hand trying to fight it off.

Instead of feeling cool water, he feels a blast of warm air. The copy throws Paon onto the floor, Paon freezes for a moment in confusion. He had been pulled out of a mirror on this side, large enough to take up the entire wall on one side of the room. He stands up on the hard wood watching the broken mirror pull itself back together, Paon blinks in realization. This was his old ballet classroom.

Paon has no time to question as the copy swipes for his throat with a purple and black fan; the two birds reach a stalemate as the fans are deflected as quickly as they are thrown. Dust whipping around the empty studio. The copy flips back and throws his arms back; Paon has no choice but to do the same.

Both Royal strikes collide in a rage of energy, shattering the mirror and floor in the process. Both birds are blown back by the angry wind, Paon looks to his side as he’s blown back to see his reflection on a glass shard. To his surprise the mask was starting to crack, revealing parts of his face.

Determined to end this quickly, as soon as Paon lands he rushes back towards the copy. He brings his arms out and starts spinning wildly, the dark copy does the same and they collide like two powerful tops. Destroying what remained of the room. Wood gives way to a black bottomless abyss, a bright light shining down on them from way high in the tunnel. 

A floor forms underneath them, a spider web pattern decorating it. They break apart and stare each other down from opposite sides of the floor, both breathing heavily. 

“I know who you are” Paon states pointing a fan in the copies direction, the copies expression doesn’t’ change.

“You’re that akuma that was in my miraculous, you were the one hiding away Duusu’s memories” 

The copy nods with a shy smile on its face, its mask changed to the butterfly pattern normally found on akuma’s. Its tail feathers rose up to show off the grand amount of detail they had, the purple glowing in the darkness. They captivated Paon’s eye, he froze like a deer caught in headlights as the copy narrowed their distance. 

“Not just her…” it spoke for the first time, its voice hoarse yet friendly. 

An image appears in the dark copies light, a voice telling Paon to look closer silencing the alarm bells going off at the back of his head. 

The image becomes clear, Paon sees himself many months ago. His past self was playing with the miraculous brooch in his hands, his eyes dull and unblinking. Paon gasps as the pink hawk moth mask appears over his past self’s face, whispering something in his ear. The image changes again, this time to him as Paon opening up a window in an apartment building. Which allowed two akuma butterflies in to create the host twins. 

“No….” Paon whispers tearing his eyes away from the images, the akuma’s eyes flash with annoyance. 

“You’ve been one of us a long time” the copy purrs putting a hand on Paon’s shoulder, Paon slaps it off. 

“I’m on Ladybug’s team; I’m one of the good guys…” Paon snaps as if to convince himself more than the akuma smirking beside him. 

“Keep telling yourself that puppet, but I’ll be using your body as I wish now” the akuma holds up Paon’s fans playfully, Paon makes a grab for them but the akuma slides away and  
kicks him off the platform.

Paon screams as he plummets though the darkness, arms flailing wildly trying to grab anything. The akuma gives him a small wave, dropping the fans in the other direction and then shoots up aiming towards the light at the top. Paon shifts his falling to try and catch the fans but they whoosh past him out of sight. 

“It’s hopeless…” escapes his lips as he looks back up at the akuma nearing the top, 

“I’ve failed…”

He covers his face in shame as purple smoke comes into sight from the depths eagerly waiting to consume the boy. 

“You egg, what are you doing giving up? ” a man’s voice shouts at him from his side, startled he looks over to see a ghost of a man dressed in a similar peacock costume, although he also wore a ridiculous neck piece. 

“You can beat this evil, you did it once already” a women’s voice coos from his other side, the peacock colours giving a beautiful glow to her Chinese robes.

“You deserve the power of the peacock, much more than I ever did” another man that looked like he had come from a masquerade joins in.

“Now let’s finish this” the voice of a beautiful women joins in, her eyes the most striking of green. 

Nathaniel agrees just as the purple smoke reaches him, then the smoke screams away as the boy is surrounded by a glowing blue bubble. The ghosts guide his hands in front of him, keeping one out straight and the other is drawn back. The beautiful eyed women places a feather in his drawn back hand and it transforms into a large blue arrow, he summons a third fan into his hand that morphs into the bow.  
The ghosts help him shoot up the tunnel as he pulls back the arrow and fires at the akuma, striking it in the back.

“You’ll never be rid of me, I’m a part of you now” the akuma screams though the pain as Paon reloads a new arrow. 

“We’ll see about that, Bye, bye butterfly” Paon fires the last arrow, getting the akuma right between the eyes.

“How much longer” Bee cries her arms straining from the awkward position. 

Ladybug wipes some sweat from her brow as she holds the dying light on the miraculous, a horrible animal sound escapes Paon’s throat and suddenly the heroes are surrounded by a black smoke that escaped his mouth and the miraculous. Ladybug manages to absorb most of the smoke within her yo-yo, slamming it shut with a gasp. The brooch ripping off in her haste to catch as much as possible, it clattered away into a corner.

“Ladybug wait-“Rena calls from beside her too late to stop her from opening the now white magic out into the lair, the blinding light makes everyone shield their eyes.

“We won…?” Bee asks breaking the silence as the lair is swallowed by darkness again; Chat looks confused trying to find the man he had been fighting with. Thanks to the bugs and him hiding his face Chat never got a good enough look to see who it was, and that was really frustrating. He must have used the light as a chance to escape.

A scream of pain turns their attention to Rena, holding her side. Ladybug gasps as the one next to her disappears in a puff of orange smoke, the real Rena was over by where the moth miraculous had landed. 

“You disappoint me once again Hawk moth” a female voice booms in a way that demands the attention of the whole room, Rena screams again as a knife pulls its way out of her side. Behind the fox was a large figure wearing a hooded dress, one hand holding her captive. The moth miraculous secure in her grasp.

“Ladybug hand me the miraculous or the Fox dies” she hissed bringing the knife up to Rena’s throat, Rena tries to argue against that but yelps instead as the blade nips across her neck. 

“Okay…just don’t hurt her again” Ladybug says quickly, scanning the room trying to form a plan. 

Bee glances at the non-transformed Paon, his face turned away from her covered in a blanket of darkness. What must have been his kwami laid next to him unconscious.

“So you must be the big boss, knife to meet you” Chat says with a ridiculous calm.

“Really you’re making a pun at a time like-YEOW!” 

Rena uses the distractions to bite down on her captors arm hard, the hooded figure shrieks in pain and releases her hold of the fox, her knife also landing on the floor with a clang. Rena manages to run out of reach before the pain from her wounds brings her to her knees. Chat races up to swing his baton at the figure, only for once again to be swarmed by butterflies.

“I can see why cats normally eat these things” Chat yells frustrated swatting at them.

Nathaniel wakes to see a strange scene, the girls were huddled together Ladybug pressing down on the stab wound on Rena’s side Bee trying to create something in her hands. Chat swatting away at butterflies oblivious to his surroundings, and finally two objects in front of him, Duusu and a knife coated in blood and some sort of black substance. A figure appears in front of him, placing the peacock brooch on her dress. Chat summons a cataclysm and accidentally hits the wall instead of a bug, causing the whole dome to shake and break apart. Thinking fast Nathaniel pounces over Duusu to protect her from the rocks and metal crashing down. 

“So heroic, what a shame” a dangerous voice hisses grabbing Nath by the neck and holding him over the edge.

“She’s immortal, she will survive rocks or falls-“Nath sees her cold eyes under the hood, a blue that reminded him of someone. 

“-But will you?”

Nath can’t scream as she drops him, sending them both plummeting to the ground below. His short life passes by his eyes, without the brooch he couldn’t transform. Instinctively he holds Duusu close to his chest as the ground gets closer, she wakes up and makes a sound of alarm.

“Duusu fly away, I don’t want you to splat on the ground” Nathaniel cries trying to let her go, but she holds onto him tightly. 

“I’m not leaving you” she cries pulling at his shirt but being unable to stop the fall.

“PAON” Bee screams as the figure drops her teammate off the side, both Bee and Chat charge towards the figure intending to pass her only to be knocked back by an unseen force. 

“He might have been her holder, but he doesn’t know her true power” the figure purrs raising her arms up as the miraculous glows on her chest. 

“Dark Feathers Flourish”

Duusu feels the pull of her activated miraculous, and clings desperately to Nathaniel, unwilling to separate. They only had a few seconds before he became tomato sauce on the pavement, an idea comes to mind and she hopes to have enough power left to do it.

Bee breaks past the tornado of black feathers that swarmed her team and races down the building, tears building in her eyes from the wind. She flies as hard as she can but doubt whispers she’ll never reach him in time.

Suddenly a huge flash occurs from him and becomes the northern lights, Bee freezes covering her eyes. She opens them to gawk at the sight in front of her; a giant peacock had appeared made entirely out of blue and green lights. It had its massive wings spread slowing the boys fall to a stop at the ground, then with a flap it sends them into the air and onto a nearby rooftop. 

The giant peacock gives a shout that rattles Bee’s eardrums. She flies over to reach it as the bird begins to dissolve into sparkles of light towards the Agreste tower. Then the light show disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

Bee landed on the roof just as the door to the stairway slammed shut, without pausing to analyze she charges after. On the third L shaped flight she catches a hand using the wall to swing around the corner, its owner hidden behind the wall and the darkness. The emergency lights must have been blown out.

“Paon…”

“Don’t call me that” his brittle voice cuts her off.

“I lost her…I’m not Paon Bleu anymore”

Bee tightens her grip on her teammates hand as he tried to pull away, sighing to try to relive her of the gathering emotions. 

“The miraculous was stolen, the kwami attached stolen as result…and we’re going to get her back. Kick that feather brains butt, and I don’t know go for lunch or something”

“Are you asking me out your highness?” his voice perked to a teasing manner, his hand shifting to grab hold of Bee’s.

“Perhaps I am” she replies with a boldness that made him chuckle, her comb beeped in warning.

“You should go, can’t have you blowing your secret identity now” His voice says to go, but his hand doesn’t let go begging her to stay. Bee feels her face heat up at an idea in her head, it was courageous and stupid but she felt she needed to do it.

“Paon close your eyes” 

Nathaniel thinks nothing of it and does as she asks, gasping when he feels the warmth of a yellow light come from her direction. But he keeps his eyes slammed shut, even when she uses her other hand to grasp his face.

“What are you…?” He trails off as something soft touches his lips; they were warm and had a powerfully sweet taste. The kiss was short and innocent, Bee pulled back dropping her hand to her side.

“Now go…” she orders in a whisper, any louder she feared her voice would crack. She feels his hand leave her own and listens as his feet scrape down the rest of the stairs and the door slams shut. 

Ladybug now understands why those shadow akuma’s acted the way they did when the royal strike hit them, the wind from the fans was soul piercing cold. She clung desperately to Rena who had passed out from her wounds; Bees honey had at least stopped the bleeding. Chat clung onto a remaining part of the dome with the girls in tow.  
Chat is unable to hold on any longer so the three go flying off though the window of the Agreste household, landing in the room of the youngest member. Ladybug watches helplessly as a swarm of blue and black feathers take to the sky and fly off into the clouds. 

“Good morning what can I help you with…oh Ladybug what a surprise” a nurse says holding her clipboard to her chest

“You must be here to see Rena, right this way”

Ladybug follows the nurse down the hospital corridors until they reach a room, the nurse opens the door for her and closes it behind her to give the hero’s privacy.  
Rena was dressed in a hospital gown and had her face covered with a blanket. Her body was turned on its side to keep the bandaged wounds up in the air. Alya shifts in alarm when she hears the door open, making sure her face was covered.

“Hey Rena, I’m glad to see you’re recovering”

“Hasn’t been easy bug, I’ve had bloggers dying to find out why I’m here…heck I’m still trying to find out why I’m here. Aren’t our suits supposed to be impenetrable?”

“That’s why I’m here, Tikki needed to get a closer look at the wound…if you don’t mind that is”

“Knock yourself out”

With a cry of “spots off” Ladybug detransforms in the isolated room, trusting Rena to not look at her but turning her back just in case. Her kwami floats over to Alya’s face and gives her a weak smile, Trixx flies out from under the pillow to give Marionette a cheeky wave. Alya’s heart races realizing just how close she was to finding out Ladybug’s identity, but both the pain in her side and the respect for her as a friend keeps her head covered.

“This wasn’t your fault LB” Rena says hearing her teammates hidden distress even without the fox sense, Marionette wipes some tears from her face unsuccessfully swallowing a sob. 

“The miraculous cure didn’t work, the damage done to the Agreste house, Paon disappearing and you being hurt didn’t get fixed. I’m supposed to be able to fix these things, yet I couldn’t when my friends needed it most” she nearly falls to her knees as sobs shake her body; Tikki stops her examination to comfort her chosen. 

“I have a theory about that…” Trixx starts pausing as everyone looks at the little fox “No akuma butterfly came out when you purified the miraculous right?”

Marionette nods and wipes her red stained eyes.

“Maybe Paon purified it in the soul and you just captured the dark magic used to control him, no akuma, no ability to use miraculous cure”

“Paon can purify akuma’s too?” Rena asks weakly 

“Rarely and only in a soul can the peacock purge a soul of evil, I doubt he’d be able to do it after only having it for a year” Tikki explains carefully peeling back the bandage making the fox hero bite her tongue to not cry out. 

“I’ve never seen knife marks like this, luckily it wasn’t fatal” Tikki states staring at the wound closed up with a slowly drying scab. She pushes the inflamed skin making Alya flinch and some black gunk comes out. She signals for Marionette to collect it using a napkin and reseals the bandage. 

“I hope Master Fu can shed some light on this” 

“Me too Tikki” 

With a flash of red Ladybug returns and leaves the two alone to heal. 

 

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Wayzz asks for the hundredth time as the two old fellows make their way down the pavement.

“I am okay with this, one hundred percent” Master Fu reassures patiently, holding out a box with a strange Chinese design on it. He puts that one in his pocket and takes out a similar one with a tiny change in its red pattern.

“But there’s something I have to do first”

A week had passed with no akuma attacks; the people of Paris were celebrating Ladybug’s team at the apparent defeat of Hawk moth. Nathaniel joined in on the celebration best he could, no one seemed to notice his lack of enthusiasm. Anyone who did chalked it up to his dad being in the hospital with a concussion. Without a proper akuma to purify the damage done to his house and the Agreste’s remained, guess he had something to do with that. Nath couldn’t quite remember what had happened when Ladybug had purified the peacock brooch; he only had the lady blog to go off of. Which hadn’t updated until yesterday, which was odd for Alya but he figured she was simply stunned by the events. 

Snow had started to fall and had already made a good sheet across Paris, making Nathaniel wish he brought gloves as he walked back home from another day of school. It would have been easier to just stay in bed all day, and he really would have preferred to do that. But his mom was already worried enough about him, no sense giving her another reason.  
He’s just about to enter the front door when a sudden gust of wind rips a drawing from his frozen fingertips, making a sound of frustration he chases after it. He catches it midair and turns to head back when something else catches his eye in the snow. He gets on his knees to brush away the snow revealing a tiny bird shivering in the cold. He carefully picks the poor thing up and warms it using the inside of his jacket, not thinking twice about it. The bird thaws out and begins to chirp happily, fluffing its feathers out feeling completely safe.

“Always important for a hero to have an eye for detail, to save even the smallest of creatures” a man wearing a bright red shirt says appearing out of nowhere behind the boy. 

“I’m not a hero…” Nathaniel states lowering his eyes, the bird looks from him to the older man with a cute confused look. 

“You may think that Hawk moth governed your every action, but he made his first mistake by choosing to use the peacock” 

Nath looks to the man to see a warm smile attached to wise but kind eyes, staring at him almost as if he knew him from a long time ago.

“Peacocks are birds that could die if put in a cage, so even when deactivated it is she who chooses her wielder” the man continues “perhaps Duusu knew in her heart that you could free her from Hawk moths influence”. 

The old man puts a hand on the smaller boy’s shoulder watching as the little bird in his jacket chirped again and flew off high into the sky, Nath watches the bird until it disappears and turns back to the man. Questions burning on his tongue, only to find he had vanished with only his footsteps in the snow to indicate he had ever been there.

Back in his room Nath dumps his bag out not worrying about wrecking a certain nest in one of the pockets; he’s not really paying attention until a thunk is heard in between drafts of paper and pencils. He picks up the responsible object to see a small box he didn’t remember having, curious he opens it to find a piece of paper neatly folded on the velvet cushion. Nath opens the paper and feels fresh tears form in his eyes, but this time they’re followed by a laugh rather than a sob. He stays like that for a moment then grabs a few spray cans from his closet, he knew what to do.

“So is there any need to keep meeting up every night? Without an akuma some of us should get some proper sleep” Queen Bee complains using her normal bratty tone to cover up the hole she felt in her chest.

“I think we need to discuss what we’re going to do, without his mask Paon can’t be with us and his kwami is in danger so long as that woman has it” Ladybug starts biting her lip as Rena flies to the meeting spot.

“Rena you should be resting” she calls watching for even the smallest wince from her teammate.

“I will but I want to hear the plan” Rena insists hoping her Alya illusion held up, her fox sense was telling her something interesting was going to happen. 

“Did you use the wall here to draw us up a plan?” Chat asks pointing to a wall covered by a large sheet; they’d met up here enough times to know that was unusual. 

“No I didn’t…” Ladybug trails off as Chat pulls the sheet down, revealing an amazing peacock mural against the grey brick. It was small against the wall, perhaps awaiting the others to join it; its head was turned to the right looking down at something. Chat followed the paintings eye to find a walkie-talkie sitting against the wall. 

“You don’t think…?” Chat starts opening up the toy to see it had a full battery and presses the contact button. 

“Hello?” he says into it, everyone holds their breath as the silence seems to drag on.

“Hey guys” chirps the voice of Paon “What do you think of the mural? Pretty good for an unfinished project” 

The team breaks into a mix of cheers, laughter and tears. Ladybug feels a great weight leave her shoulders almost knocking her off balance; Chat doesn’t hide a smirk as he answered.

“Paon you are such a show off” 

From his room Nathaniel is on his bed snickering from the comment, he pulls himself together ready for the next step. 

“So what’s next?”

“That witchy woman is calling herself Le Paon, totally trashing our Paon’s name” Bee’s voice comes from the device, Nath can just see her buzzing in annoyance.

“Well maybe we should call our Paon something else to avoid confusion, I mean his full name was…is Paon Bleu” Chat says with a level of uncertainty in his voice.

“What do you think Paon?” ladybug asks and Nath can see her face full of concern.

Nathaniel turns to his big mirror to see the absolute fire truck that was his hair, in the far corner of the reflection a paper was folded out and stuck to it using sticky tack. It had a picture on it, drawn by what one would think was a child. The colours were too harsh and the figures were as simple as they come. But Nath could still see it was a drawing of him wearing the peacock miraculous, with a tiny Duusu smiling at his side. The words “My chosen” were written in blue crayon underneath the drawing. He throws his head on the pillow with a large smile on his face, not seeing it drop a second too soon in his reflection.

“I like Chat’s idea” he chuckles 

“Call me Bleu”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I rewrote this chapter more times then any one before it, hope that was a good dose of epicness for a "Season final" chapter. Thank you all so much for reading once again.  
> So many emotions throughout this chapter, I hope they flowed nicely enough.  
> 


	13. Clean up in aisle 13

Chapter 13, clean up in aisle 13

“Master Fu?”

“Hello Marionette, so nice to see you” Master Fu’s kind voice makes the girl relax slightly as she makes her way into the tea room. Tikki flies out of her purse and takes a seat on the music player; Marionette sits down on a pillow next to the kneeling man. 

“Where’s Wayzz?” Tikki asks not seeing her usual tea partner

“He needed some exercise…in fact his absence is part of why I called you in today” his eyes grew distinct for a moment as if reliving a bad memory. Marionette fiddles with her cup of tea trying to calm her increasing anxiety, Master Fu takes out the napkin with the black sludge on it. Despite it being exposed for a long time it remained as gooey as molasses, and had a faint smell of tar.

“I have looked though old books and memories and I can confirm this substance is made from a very old black magic, one that I haven’t seen with my own eyes since I was a little boy” he paused to sigh “Demons would use this against miraculous wielders since as you’ve seen it can break through its magic” 

“Demons are like akuma’s right?” Marionette asks when he pauses again to take a sip of his tea

“Akuma’s are created by the moth miraculous being mixed with darkness; demons can be much more dangerous. They have been our enemies much longer then Hawk moth has even been alive. They value the power of Ladybug and Chat Noir the most because of the damage they can do to demons, to purify or destroy.”

“That reminds me, Trixx and Tikki were saying Paon could also purify an akuma. But only in a soul or something, is that why that woman stole his miraculous?” Marionette says glancing at Tikki who nods at her with a mouth full of cookie.

“Yes the peacock can purify demons, its power is much weaker compared to the ladybug but is quite the light show-“he looks up to the sky for a moment with a ghost of a smile on his lips “-to see her use that power is a gift to the soul.”

Marionette nods in somewhat understanding, “So he’s more of a fail safe than anything else”

“But it was interrupted” Tikki cuts in pouring herself more tea for her baby toy cup. 

“Yes…during the healing stage she was captured by that woman, although I think she used what she could to save her holder rather than rebuild the damage done by Hawk moth” Master Fu says finishing his tea and placing down the cup with a loud clang.

“From what you’ve told me this woman has super natural powers even without using Duusu and that makes her very dangerous. So that is why I have decided to end my partnership with Wayzz, you Marionette are going to need all the help you can get to defeat this evil and free both the peacock and the moth” he adds somehow keeping his voice calm.

“Are you going to be okay without him? You’ve been together so long” Tikki asks flying down to float next to her chosen, worry clouding her usual bubbly face.

“I will be fine, I’m sure you’ll meet your new teammate soon enough” he stands up indicating the meeting was over, and Marionette offers a hand in picking up the dishes and setting them in a sink in the next room. 

“Oh and Marionette-“ Master Fu calls as the girl heads to the door “-a time may come for you to leave Paris for a while to meet with my old friend in China, so please have your team prepared for your absence” and with that Marionette leaves with her head buzzing with thoughts as she makes her way to school. 

Nathaniel was up late which wasn’t unusual considering the past months but instead of racing across rooftops he was scrolling though photos on his laptop, class photos with a female teacher was his focus at the moment. He knew he had seen those eyes before, the ones belonging to the thief that had stolen Duusu. The question was where; sitting on the bed next to him was a sketch he had done of the eyes. One was larger than the other which was more by accident but the colour matched what he remembered. He closed the computer with a frustrated sigh, resisting the urge to throw it when nothing matched. The walkie-talkie beeped several times, indicating one of his teammates wanted to talk. He takes a deep breath before answering with several beeps of his own, a little code they had developed in case either dropped their copy somewhere and someone else picked it up.

“Hey Bleu fowl’s it doing?” Chat’s energetic voice chirps from the device, using the new nickname with ease. 

“Fine I guess, any luck finding Hawk moth or Le Paon?” Nath asks with dull tone to his voice, matching his gray mood.

“Nothing yet, but we’re looking” Chat replies “oh but get this, Ladybug says we’ll be getting a new team member tomorrow probably”

“You’re replacing me already?” the question flies out before Nath can think it over, a ping in his heart does nothing to help his already bummed state of mind.

“No, no we wouldn’t do that, this Master Fu guy thinks something big is going to happen so we need all the help we can get. Plus he might be a big help in tracking down the bad guys” 

“I thought it would be best for you to know before he appears online” Ladybug’s voice cuts in, “now it is late Bleu so please don’t push yourself, I know how hard it is losing your kwami but we’re doing everything we can”.

Nath gave a dry laugh, Ladybug could be such a mother hen “Alright but if anything comes up tell me okay?”

“We will”

Nath tosses the device on the other side of his bed and shuts the light off by throwing his balled up clothing at the switch. He didn’t want to go to school tomorrow, pretend that everything was fine in tomato-ville. He eventually doses off with those blue eyes burning in his head. 

Nathaniel finds himself in his bed, a cold sweat soaking the shirt he slept in. He tried to sit up but discovered he was pinned down by some unseen force, only able to turn his head from side to side. Nath struggled and opened his mouth to scream only for something to cover his mouth; a warm hand stroked his cheek making all the blood drain from his face. His room lit up with a kind of red black light, revealing a figure at the base of his bed. Poisonous purple skin stretched to reveal sharp cat-like teeth and red eyes bore into his with sinister intent. Nath screamed into the invisible hand as the akuma slowly climbed up into the bed and sat on him, licking its lips as it neared the boys head. A sewing needle appears in its hand and takes Nathaniel’s lips in its other hand, Nathaniel’s eyes widen as the needle pierces his lips and a thread is woven though. The akuma was sewing his mouth shut; helplessly Nath shakes his head trying to get away feeling like he was suffocating from the combined weight of the akuma and hand blocking his mouth.

Nathaniel woke up for real and screamed as loud as his lungs would allow and his body spasms in such a panic that he kicks himself to the floor. He stays there for a moment just listening to his heart try to escape his ribs; his door then opens revealing his moms outline in the moonlight. 

 

“Do you want to talk about it buddy? That seemed like one hell of a nightmare” she asks once they had sat down on the couch downstairs, cups of hot milk sweetened with honey in hand. 

“Not really…” he answers taking a sip from his drink, he had lied of course but it would be impossible to explain what had been going on. It wasn’t just the nightmares, he felt like he was being watched every time he closed his eyes. Without Duusu he was jumping at every sound, expecting a demon to appear to attack or control him again. 

Cal sets her drink down on the table and takes Nathaniel’s as well, without speaking she picks him up and holds him in her arms leaning back on the couch to get comfortable. Nath is too tired to complain about not being a little kid anymore and doesn’t object when she begins stroking his hair. The familiar calming action eventually luring the boy to sleep in his mother’s arms, Cal watches her little tomato and wishes he would trust her enough to talk to her.

 

Meanwhile a few streets away in a wonderful but closed for the night bakery another teenager paces back and forth unable to sleep. 

“Marionette I know you’re stressed but you need rest too” Tikki states from her little bed by Marionette’s.

“How can I sleep Tikki? After the talk with Master Fu today, dark magic, Paon’s kwami still missing, and now a new teammate” Marionette rambled then plops onto the bed and goes though some files on her phone. 

“We can only keep searching for signs as to where Hawk moth could be hiding, you have some wonderful teammates and some great friends to help you so don’t shoulder everything okay” she says glancing over to Marionette only to find she had fallen asleep with the phone’s light in her face, Tikki sighs and flies over to pluck the device away and put it on the table.

“Good night Marionette” 

Adrien was anxiously playing with his pencil in class that morning, his mind a mixture of when this new guy was going to appear and the fact that he knew who Paon Bleu was behind the mask. Speaking of Nathaniel been even more quiet then normal, he wasn’t even doodling in class anymore. Just staring off at teacher blankly, even in his moms class the lights were on but nobody was home. Adrien caught her more than once glance up at him with a flash of motherly concern, how nice it must be to have a parent that worried about you. But knew to give you space until you were ready to talk about it. Adrien wanted to help but how could he? It’s not like he could walk up to the redhead and be like: “Hey I know you’re a super hero and recently had your kwami stolen, so sorry for your loss”.  
He was still deep in thought trying to make a plan when Nino waved his hand in front of his face, bringing him back to reality.

“Dude did you hear me? I said I can’t make it to our gaming session today” Nino repeats himself crossing his arms. “Something big came up” he adds as if that was a legitimate excuse.

“I already told Nath, but it didn’t seem like he was listening the first time either. Hope you guys have fun without me” and with that Nino runs out of the classroom, leaving Adrien to discover he had been not paying attention all class. His phone buzzed with a text from Nathalie indicating that the limo would be picking him up today, and Adrien groans knowing this meant a job of some sort. It was like she knew whenever his original plans got canceled and swooped in to prevent actual free time.

Nathaniel sighs as he exits the school, wanting to just go home and sleep for a while. Adrien gives him a small wave as he walks past and says something, but Nath wasn’t listening. He watches the blond modal make his way over to his ride in the limo, a woman got out in order to talk with him before he got in. Nathaniel freezes as she glances over to him, her bored blue eyes growing intense for half a second. 

Nath stands like a deer caught in some headlights as she gets into the car and it drives away, after seeing the car disappear he throws his books in his bag and runs as fast as he could to his mom’s house. He grabs his phone from his back pocket to run though some images of the Agreste business and comes across the woman in the background of some shots. It was her, it was definitely her. So now what did he do about it? Call the team? Sneak around during a gaming session? His head was spinning with the shock he doesn’t notice a shadow crawl over the window.

“Figured it out have you? Took you long enough” a small but deep woman’s voice calls to him, Nath looks up confused.

“Who’s there?” he demands not seeing anything so he pulls out one of his books to use as a kind of weapon.

“My, my, forgotten me already? Although I will admit our first meeting was how you say…chaotic” Nath throws himself back as a giant arachnid slides its way down from the top of his window about the size of a tarantula, its large fangs vibrating as if it was purring. 

“YOU…wait, how? Chat turned you to ash” Nath stammers grabbing hold of the doorknob, the spider demon lands on his drawing table giving a small chuckle at the boy.

“He did do quite a number on me, but you see demons like me can grow back so long as something of us remains. And you neglected to destroy my molted skins” She explains, 

Nath gathers some nerve and tries to squish her with his book. With amazing speed she jumps out of the way and stands on the wall.

“I come in peace little one, please let me explain myself” she pleads spitting webbing on his hands pinning them to the table.

“For some reason I don’t believe you” Nath spits with heavy sarcasm, straining but failing to free himself. 

“Please have a seat” she says gesturing with a leg to the chair beside the table, Nath growls but does as she says. “Thank you” she jumps off the wall to land on the webbing keeping his hands tied.

“Now it is my understanding that you had your miraculous stolen, I wish to help you get it back” she starts 

“Why would you…?”

“Because I despise that self-entitled hag” she snaps slamming a leg down with a tiny thump, “as I was saying I can offer you my abilities as well as knowledge of the Agreste house to help you get in and find your little bird…”

“But you want something in return” Nath finishes for her, and if spiders could smile she would have.

“That is how we demons work, care to make a deal?” 

“Why would I do that? Never mind that you’re a spider demon thing, but you attacked me and put me under Hawk moth’s control” Nath growls jerking back as hard as he could and ripping the webbing. The spider swings over to the mirror before Nathanial can wack her, landing at a height where she was right above his reflection. 

“I may be your only help to get her back, your hero friends are more concerned about fighting those low level akuma’s” she snaps dodging a thrown book seconds before glass shatters behind her. She lands on the bed and turns to see Nathanial glaring at her.

“Why should I trust you?” he snaps glancing around for more ammo, his fists were shaking uncontrollably.

“Because I am bound by my words, and I want that woman to be with as little power as possible. Please let me help you”

“Why go to me?”

“Because I know you’re willing to do what has to be done to save her”

Nath gives a frustrated scream and throws another book; it sails over the bed and crashes into the closet. “What do you want in return?” he squeaks out.

“I will help you get into the Agreste house, save Duusu and get back out again. I offer my power to assist you in this mission, and in return I ask to be free to leave France to travel the world. See nothing serious”

Nathaniel stares at her taking deep breaths to calm down, “And you can’t hurt anyone, right?”

“If that is what you demand, then not a soul will be harmed by me” 

“…Fine it’s a deal” Nath regrets his words as the spider jumps onto his arm and makes its way up to his shoulder despite him shaking to get her off.

“Let’s get ready then” she chirps happily.

 

“Why are we here again?” Nath asks as the two make their way into a local grocery store, the bright lights in the store making him wince. 

“If I can’t get power from human emotions I need to get it elsewhere” the spider explains cheerfully from the black jacket he had found, she had her four eyes peeking out of the chest pocket. “Ooh those look delicious” she says looking towards a bunch of livers chilling in the fresh section.

“Gross” Nath mutters picking up a package and the bloody organ slides around against the plastic. 

“Better then humans” the spider says with a sing song in her voice, at least she was happy with the situation. 

Suddenly a loud crash occurs in another aisle sending a young mother screaming away as a wave of mustard chases her into the dairy section. Nath gasps as the person responsible come into view; he wore a white outfit with an apron and nametag. He also had the butterfly shaped mask over his face and googles to boot. 

“I am sick of you annoying customers, now the Retail avenger will avenge workers all over Paris” the akuma shouts pointing a large white gun at Nath and shooting a stream of applesauce at him. Nath manages to escape in time and takes cover using a sample table.

“Great, I thought Hawk moth would give us a break today” Nath grumbles as the akuma shoots at other people, he flinches as the spider hops out of his jacket and goes to open a package of liver, “Do you really have to do that now?” he snaps.

“I’m starving, so I’ll take any opportunity” she replies coolly, ripping the plastic and sinking her fangs into the meat. Nathaniel bites back his disgust and brings out his walkie-talkie, entering in his sequence of buttons. 

 

Ladybug and co were sitting around in their usual meeting spot, Rena and Bee were in the middle of yet another game of tic tack toe using the dust on the floor. Chat twirled his baton mindlessly in the air and even Ladybug had started to fiddle with her Yo-yo out of boredom. 

“You said that guy was coming today right?” Rena asks sliding onto her back as Bee beats her once again at the game, Ladybug shrugs and looks off into the distance.

“Wait, someone’s coming” 

The hero’s stop and watch the figure make his way into view, grunting in a manly fashion as he pulled himself onto the rooftop where the hero’s waited.  
The stranger wore a costume that was a combination of light and dark green, amber eyes hidden behind green tinted wind googles, brown hair covered by a hood, and finally a large turtle shell shield attached to his back. The rest of the team is quiet in awe as he walks towards them.

“Nice to finally meet you guys, I GAh!” Suddenly the stranger trips over a rock he must have not noticed, he tries to recover and accidentally knocks his shield off and it rolls away. Ladybug and co visibly flinches as he slips again chasing after it and both shield and dude go crashing into a pile of concrete dust and metal.

“Ow” the turtle themed stranger groans as he wipes himself off, trying to regain some dignity.

“Oh I like this guy” Rena states with a devilish smirk, Bee tries but fails not to laugh. 

After a few minutes of introduction, Ladybug welcomes the new team member: Carapace as he called himself. He seemed like a nice guy to Chat, and now he had every opportunity to make turtle/reptile based puns. Chat’s in the middle of thinking up one when his walkie-talkie beeped several times at him, the new guy raises a brow at it as Chat presses his sequence back then speaks.

“Hey Bleu you’re just in time, we were just greeting the new guy” Chat says giving a small smirk to Carapace, finding his look of amazement amusing. 

“Oh? So what’s he like?” Paon Bleu’s voice asks from the device with such a confident proud tone Chat found it hard to believe it was coming from the artist at the back of the class, showing off some good acting to hide whatever emotions he was going though, Chat’s smirk deepens as he hand the walkie-talkie to Carapace. 

“Uh…Hi, Paon I mean Bleu…I’m Carapace, um I’m a big fan of the way you…spin and stuff” Carapace stutters out scratching behind his neck in embarrassment.

“Nice to meet you Carapace-“a crash could be heard in the background “-You guys should make your way over to the supermarket here- “ another crash followed by something squishing “-Akuma in the produce section”

Ladybug yanks the device out of Carapace’s hand and demands details, once satisfied she throws the device back to Chat and throws her yo-yo to a secure swinging spot.

“Lettuce move team” Chat fires as he leaps up using his baton to launch into the air. 

“Ready for your first akuma battle” Ladybug asks not waiting for an answer as she and the rest of the group take off, leaving Carapace to awkwardly scramble to keep up using a grapple hook to go a tad faster. 

Nathaniel peeks out from his hiding spot to watch the akuma shoot a bunch of apples enlarging them to beach ball size, and kicks them towards a pile of people like they were bowling pins. Nath thinks fast and rolls the table in front of them, the apples bouncing off the table and landing with a splat back at the akuma. Retail Avenger growls in anger and starts firing hard boiled eggs at the now wide open red head,

“egg-cellent choice of ammo” Nathaniel chirps then remembers he’s out of costume; somehow he avoids the shots and ducks behind the next aisle. The akuma loses interest in him and fires into the employee’s lounge this blast smelling like hot nacho cheese. It would be so great to just royal strike that gunk back at the akuma’s face, but alas that wasn’t an option right now. 

“This guy looks like a big ‘pizza’ work” Chat’s voice comes from beside him, Nath jumps back and the blond hero grins widely. 

“Chat shouldn’t you be out there?”

“I will, just thought I’d help you out of here first-“ he waves Carapace over, who gives a small wave once he makes it to the others “Carapace get this guy out of here, we’ll keep the akuma off you” and with that Chat leaps over to the akuma.

“Right uh…come with me dude” the turtle sheepishly ordered holding his shield in front of him turning his back and starting down the aisle, Nath checks his pocket to find the spider was still gone. He scans the floors trying to spot her and finds her still sucking away at packets of liver, her size growing to that of an Australian huntsman. She jumps out of the way as the akuma slides past her concentrating on turning Chat into pet food. Nath hisses to get her attention and Carapace grabs Nath’s arm to start sneaking towards the exit; the spider snags a fresh liver and scampers over to them. Her large hairy legs making Nath shiver as she crawls up his back. 

“Wow you can really keep up, you must do a lot of avoc-ardio” Chat jokes jumping behind the deli bar and sending a spoonful of guacamole in the akuma’s face.

“Chat can you stop the puns for like five seconds” Ladybug calls from across the store freeing a group of people trapped in a freezer by a bunch of molasses, the ooze gives way allowing the people to escape. Rena creates a large umbrella to shield the escaping people from the array of food products flying about. 

“Come on ladybug you loaf them” Chat teases as an array of hot coffee shoots over his head, the akuma clearly not liking being ignored. “Me-ouch what a hot head” 

“Time to check out miraculous hero’s” Retail Avenger snaps bringing out a second pistol to fire one with peanut butter and the other with honey, Chat dodges the peanut butter but gets slopped into the wall by the honey.

“What a shame, I left my coupon at home” Chat jokes trying to free himself from the sticky goo, the akuma roars in annoyance and charges towards him using his weapons to blast waves of orange pop to speed him up. 

“look at the mess you’ve made, I’m going to have to speak to the manager” Bee comments flying in front of Chat and smacking the akuma with her dipper before he could change direction, “I see you’ve gotten yourself in a sticky situation” she adds turning to Chat and using her dipper to scoop the honey away. 

“Do these guys always joke so much?” Carapace asks aloud and Nath covers a laugh behind him. The turtle gives him a questionable look but his attention is quickly ripped away by a bunch of tomatoes smacking into his shield. Carapace ducks behind the shield like a real turtle would its shell, “Come on Na…dude we’re almost there”

Ladybug brings in relief as the new guy gets the last citizen out of the store, now she could focus more on the akuma. A quick scan of him and she guesses the akuma must be in his nametag, now she just needed a plan to get it without becoming a ladybug sandwich.

Rena waits until Nath is out the door before grabbing Carapace’s arm and leaping them into the air, laughing to herself as he screams in alarm. 

“Come on slow-poke we got to get into the action” she teases landing on top of a fish display. Ladybug summons a lucky charm and catches a hand held scanner, looking at it with a look of absolute confusion. 

“You sure you don’t want to taco about it?” Chat squeaks as a blast of ketchup is shot in his direction, and is deflected by him spinning his baton really fast. The akuma rolls his eyes at him but doesn’t answer a huge grin blooming on his face.

“Say jello to my little friend” Retail Avenger cries slamming his two guns together to create one giant launcher weapon, Chat screams and run out of the way as a giant blob of jello nearly encases him, Bee isn’t so lucky and slides helplessly into a stack of tuna cans trapped in the sugary blob.

“Can I help you sir?” Ladybug calls from behind the akuma, he turns to fire but she reacts first and gets him in the eyes with the scanners light. While he’s blinded she rips off the name tag and tosses it over to Rena, who breaks it in half.

“Oh look you’re twenty percent off” Ladybug blurts before refocusing on the escaping butterfly with practiced ease, catching then fixing the ruined supermarket back to its original state.

“My lady, you’ll always be my butter half” Chat purrs as she jumps towards him for a fist bump, Rena and Bee receiving bumps of their own moments after. Carapace laughs nervously as Rena brings his hand up to fist bump it.

“Not bad for your first battle slow poke” she purrs with a Cheshire smile, Carapace beams scratching the back of his head until his shield bumps the stand causing him to lose his balance on the slippery fish. He falls to the floor with an ungraceful flop, only succeeding in making Rena burst out laughing. Her laughter gets broken by cries of pain as her stitches stain from so much movement, Ladybug flashes a look of concern her way and Rena gives a weak smile.

Nighttime had fallen over the Agreste household when a small figure approached and hid behind a tree nearby, he was dressed entirely in black with his red hair mostly covered by a black toque with little cat ears. He bit his lip watching the cameras survey the ground in front of the gate, maybe he should wait for Ladybug to do this.

“Not getting cold feet now, you want to save Duusu don’t you?” the spider hissed in his ear

“Of course I do, so how do we get in?” Nath fires back. 

“Stand underneath that camera, do as I say when I say it” She orders and Nath takes a deep breath then leaps underneath the camera, his back against the stone fence. The spider spits webbing once at the opposite camera to block it then straight up to catch onto a low tree branch. Her large legs tighten around his torso and she drags them both into the air. A noise of discomfort escapes him and she snickers at his distress. 

“Now go to the left wall there, the motion sensors do not reach” she orders and Nath carefully sneaks his way over to the wall, releasing a breath when the yard remains in darkness as he makes it to the desired wall. 

“I already gave my statement, Hawk moth threatened to hurt my son if I did not allow him to use a part of my home. With him exposed he has left and I have not heard from him, I will notify authorities if I see him again. Now get out of my house” 

Mr. Agreste’s voice rang from the open window, Nath ducks to the ground as the front lights turn on and the front door opens. Three reporters walk out with looks of disappointment on their face; the spider sprays webbing in through the door and catches on the doors lock. The gorilla of a guard doesn’t notice the sticky string and slams the door without hesitation; the spider waits a few seconds for the lights to turn off than pulls on the string turning the lock until a small click was heard.

“Go quickly, the alarm will turn on soon” she hisses to the red head, Nath uses a gloved hand to open the door and quickly darts to the right behind one of the red plants. The big man turns at the sound of the door but doesn’t notice the boy, his red hair for once helping him camouflage in the grass. 

“Mr. Agreste you should go get some rest, it’s been a tough week” Natalie’s voice drones from atop the stairs, Nath peeks though to see both adults talking in front of that ugly photo of father and son. Nathaniel’s heartbeat threatens to leap out of his throat as the cold hearted woman looks right at him, her expression doesn’t change and she leads the tall man to his chambers. Nath lets out a breath again as they disappear into the mansion, the gorilla man leaving for his own post on the other side of the house.

“Go to the right here, we can sneak underneath the dining room table” She hisses spitting a webbing over another camera to hide them temporary, Nath does as she says and slides underneath the table his footsteps echoing on the fancy wooden floor. 

Nathaniel struggles to see in the pitch black room, crawling under the massive table resulted in him hitting the legs of the chairs several times. Each time he froze and listened for footsteps to come rushing in and drag him out, but the house remained silent. At the end of the table he slowly stands up and creeps over to the entrance to the kitchen.

“There are three dumbwaiters in there; we need use the third one which leads to the guest bedroom” The spider whispers, suddenly loud footsteps are heard coming from the kitchen. Nath jumps to the wall beside the door as it slams open and a cook walks in whistling a happy tune. Nath follows the spider’s instruction and watches the chef walking away as he slowly pushes the door open and slips inside. His mouth felt dry and his hands were shaking, but there was no turning back now. He uses his hands to feel around the darkness and comes across what had to be the dumbwaiter; he’s feels an engraved one carved into the metal. 

All of a sudden a hand grabs his shoulder; Nathaniel panics, grabs the hand and pushes both of them into a storage closet. 

“Nath what are you doing here?” Adrien’s voice cuts though the darkness, Nath freezes as light burns his vision. Adrien had turned on the storage rooms single light, one of his arms pinned behind him by Nathaniel. 

“It’s none of your business” Nath whispers pleading to get Adrien to keep quiet releasing the taller boys arm.

“You’re in my house, I think that’s my business” Adrien hisses back, deciding to humour the shorter boy keeping his voice low. 

“Alright look, your dad’s assistant stole something important from me” 

Adrien raised a brow, was he referring to Duusu? 

“Just forget you saw me here, I’ll be out of here as soon as I get her back” Nath holds both hands up to defuse tension, and grabs the doorknob to get back to the kitchen.

“You can’t be serious” Adrien grabs Nathaniel’s hand as he tries to sneak away, “If it’s so important how come you didn’t you ask me to check?” Nathaniel doesn’t say anything but rips his hand free.

“Or better yet, why not just wait until Ladybug and team find her?” 

“How do you know they were looking for her?” Nath yells in a whisper, and Adrien mentally kicks himself for the slip of the tongue.

“How do you know that Nathalie stole her? Nathalie is one of my dad’s most trusted employees, she’s no thief” Adrien fires back trying to avoid answering the question, to his relief Nath takes the bait.

“Her eyes are the same blue…”

“You seriously broke into my house because her eyes are blue?!” the modal cuts Nath off slapping his hands to the sides of his head similarly to a certain raven headed girl. “Do you have any idea how many people’s eyes are blue? Marionette’s eyes are blue for Pete’s sake”

Nath rolls his eyes at Adrien; of course he had to bring up Marionette at a time like this. 

“Marionette’s eyes aren’t the right shade, and she doesn’t match the height of the thief” his voice starting to strain under the stress, he had to get back to finding Duusu and getting out of here before the alarm went on. 

“You should have called Chat and the others before doing this” Adrien scorns

“I still can, see” Nath says pulling out his walkie-talkie and presses the button once before Adrien can stop him, the other device beeps loudly in the small storage closet. Nath jumps at the sound not expecting it to be so close. Adrien groans and pulls out his walkie-talkie, Nath presses his button again before Adrien can turn it off.

“Adrien…what are you doing with Chat’s walkie-talkie?” Nath asks slowly, staring at the other boy so intensely Adrien felt small in his gaze. 

“I…Um…”

“Oh give it up Adrien you blew it” Plagg groans floating out from behind a can of seasoning with a piece of cheese in his paws.

“Plagg I could have saved that” Adrien’s voice goes up several pitches as he glares at the little cat. He turns back to Nath to see the boy looking between him and Plagg in trying to put the pieces together, his jaw then tries to hit the floor.

“You…You’re Chat” Nath stammers out, Adrien sighs and nods. Plagg gives no physical reaction and plops his stinky self into Adrian’s front pocket.

“And while we’re at it I know you’re Paon Bleu…” Adrien says with a large sheepish smile, “Uh, Duusu called me when the thingy attacked you”

“Excuse me I am a spider demon, it that really so hard to remember?” the spider asks with a hint of frustration in her voice, her long fangs coming into view just under Nathaniel’s hair.

“WHY THE HELL IS THAT THING BACK?” Adrien forgets they’re hiding and grabs a small broom to wack the giant arachnid. 

“Adrien you moron stop” Nath hisses bringing his hands up to defend himself from the other boy’s wild swings, they both freeze as large footsteps stomp over to the closet. The door swings open revealing the angry face of the gorilla bodyguard, raising a brow as both boys grin at him nervously. 

 

“Adrien you should know better than to sneak friends in for unplanned sleepovers, and Nathaniel was it? You count your blessings that I’m not waking Mr. Agreste to deal with you” Nathalie scolded with a cold unloving tone. Both boys had been brought out to the main room with the gorilla holding both of them by one shoulder, the spider helplessly trapped underneath the massive man’s hand. 

“Take him to his room” Nathalie orders and the gorilla releases Nath to escort Adrien back to his room, Nathaniel catches Adrien’s look of apology before he’s dragged into his room like a prisoner. 

“Now then-“she pauses to approach the red head, her heels clicking on the marble floor “-let’s take care of you”. Nath turns to see his spider partner was still recovering from the giant man’s hand, and freezes as her icy hand grabs his chin.

“I know you weren’t here to meet Adrien, so why don’t you tell me the truth now” she ordered tilting his head up to meet her gaze. 

Nathalie doesn’t wait for an answer and takes his shoulder to start leading him in the opposite direction to the front door, Nath involuntary shakes like a leaf as he’s lead somewhere like a lamb in the slaughterhouse. They come up to a small black door that Nath thinks at first it’s another door to the outside, like an employee’s exit. But that hope is immediately dashed as she opens it to reveal a bedroom of some kind. Unlike Adrien’s room it was tiny with nothing more than a bed that almost didn’t fit and a wall covered by large blue curtains. Nathalie turned to the boy and ran a fingernail over his skin, Nath flinches but doesn’t cry out as it slices though his flesh causing it to bleed.

“You think Duusu is here” Nathalie said with a strange hiss coming from the back of her monotone voice.

“Where is she?” Nath summons up the nerve ripping his arm free, the spider finally recovers from being squished and climbs up onto his hat and hisses at Nathalie.

Nathalie isn’t fazed by the giant purple and black spider, a horrible grin makes its way onto her face and she grabs Nath so quickly neither can react before she throws them into the room, Nath falls on the bed with a loud poof.

“You’ll see her soon enough, sleep tight”  
Nathaniel jumps up and charges her and gets a face full of door as she slams it, he gets himself up and begins banging on the door. There was no door knob on this side, so he didn’t even have that to rattle. Panic starting to set in as he runs to the curtains to see if he could escape through the window and finds a wall instead.

“LET US OUT”

Chat leaps out of his bedroom window, landing on the ground outside his house. He’s expecting to find Nathaniel walking back home but instead he hears a hair rising scream. It’s a hero’s duty to investigate these things so he follows the scream to the back door of his house, where he sees Nathalie staring at the sky with a look of absolute shock. 

“Hey-“he calls jumping over to her “What happened?”

“…a moth…a giant moth” Nathalie stuttered nearly hyperventilating, Chat stands astonished never seeing his manager like this before. 

“It came and took the boy while I was calling his parents” she shows Nathaniel’s cell phone in her hands, tears starting to fall from her face. “It must have thought he was Adrien” she adds with a sniff covering her face with her hands.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go find him” Chat says pausing to pick up a black object a few centimeters away from her, discovering it to be the walkie-talkie. Must have been where he was scooped up. Chat then uses his baton to launch himself into the air in the direction she had been looking. 

The crying act stops the second the cat hero disappeared, an evil smirk replaces her tears as she turns back to the massive house.

"Now then let's get to work shall we?" it seems she is talking to the air at first, but at her feet black fog circles and giggles as it follows her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carapace has joined the scene, yay.  
> And I saw a theory stating that Nathalie was going to be La Paon and quite frankly I totally believe that, I've never really liked her and her name means heartless for crying out loud. So I'm just taking a swing on how her character would act as the big bad guy and so far I don't completely hate what I wrote so there is that.  
> Oh yes and the spiders back, didn't think you'd see her again did ya?


	14. Secrets sealed away

Chapter 14 Secrets sealed away  
“Hey blood head ever heard of the textbook example of insanity?” the spider grumbles softly, curled on the beds pillow watching as the boy slams his fist one more time then slides down to the floor.

“Why don’t you do something then?” Nath grumbles at her, leaning against the door to scan over the room. 

“This entire room is protected by some sort of magic, there’s nothing I can do” she states plainly, “she must have known we were coming”

“Guess we’re stuck in here for a while then…” Nath mutters leaning his head on his knees “so how come your part of the deal was to leave France, can you not leave?” he asks to fill the silence.

“One of my first deals was with an Englishman; he tricked me into trapping myself within the borders of France. Probably thought once he won the war all of France would disappear taking me with it, but alas France lives on to this day” she explains climbing over to a corner and beginning to spin a web.

“Huh, for once I wish the English had won, no offense”

“None taken” she squeaked out “Now it’s my turn-“she completes her tiny web and sits in the centre “-are you related to the Luna vampires of Europe?”

Nathaniel makes a sound of confusion tilting his head to the side “no, wait vampires? What makes you say that?”

“You share their hair colour of the blood moon, lovely people once you know them”

“So vampires exist, great just another thing I didn’t need to know today” Nath snaps with heavy sarcasm “First my idol and more scandalous modal of my art turns out to be a friend of mine and now blood sucking monsters exist, Can this day get any better?”

He stands up to kick the door in frustration “Oh yea I’m trapped in his house with a giant spider demon by a crazy kwami-napping lady”

“Blondie actually makes a lot of sense as the cat wielder, would explain why he could sneak up on us like that” she hums and Nath rolls his eyes at her.

“I would have thought you’d be a little more concerned about us getting out of here, since you can’t hold up your end of the deal if we’re stuck” he grumbles which gets her to snap up and jump into his hands.

“If I could do something I would, but the door is blocked” she growls trying to look intimidating by raising her front legs in the air

“Maybe there’s another way out” Nath mutters going to the wall behind the curtain again, the spider watches him pat at the stone and would have rolled her eyes if she could.

“What are you doing?” she asks as he goes to another wall and does the same patting action.

“Looking for a secret passage, there’s always one in houses like these” he states as if that was obvious, he taps one part of the wall that felt slightly different. 

“As if there would be a secret passage in a room built to be…”

Nath gives a small “yay” as a click is heard and the wall gives way to reveal a staircase leading down into the darkness.

“You were saying?” he asks turning to her with a cheeky grin, she huffs in annoyance but settles in his hand as they began the trip down.

 

Nathalie’s high heels tapped loudly as she made her way back to the room, she starts to speed run but forces herself to slow. She needed to be full of poise and power, not out of breath by the time she reached her prisoner. She reaches the door and pulls out the peacock miraculous from a box in her pocket, with a flash of blue light a tired and sad Duusu appears.

“Hello Duusu, time we get to work” Nathalie hums placing the pin on her chest

“Work with you is no fun” Duusu states bluntly, “I want to go back to Nathaniel” she adds with a pout.

“He’s spoiled you, turned you into a brat like he is” Nathalie hissed somehow keeping her face in the same flat expression, “no matter, we’re about to slice him to pieces anyway”.

Duusu doesn’t have time to react before she’s pulled into the pin and La Paon stands in the place of the assistant. She grins and unlocks the door, taking her time to rattle the knob to scare the boy on the other side. With fluid motion she throws open the door and uses a fan to send a wave of cold wind into the room, if that spider tried to attack she’d be thrown back for sure.

“Hello again…” she trails off realizing the room was completely empty, a hole in the wall indicating what way they must have gone. She stamped her foot and growled how dare they escape and ruin her dramatic entrance.

She stood at the start of the staircase, glaring down into the depths. Her attention is shifted away when she hears the flapping of a large moth coming in; she smiles at the giant black insect and opens the drawer next to the bed. She pulls out a very old doll with its stringy hair clinging to its scalp; eyes that once held buttons were now just bits of string sticking out, and the mouth was tore open spitting out some of the stuffing. La Paon strokes the rotten toy and starts to choke, a smile stays on her lips as she coughs out a single needle used for sewing. She motions to the moth and it disappears into the needle, staining it black. She sticks the dark needle into the doll and watches as the black starts to cover the doll. She then clicks a button next to the secret stairway, and with a loud click the stairs shift into a slide. The sound of the two screaming was music to her ears.

“Have fun” she purrs throwing the doll down the slide and watching as it disappears into the darkness. 

“Wish I had my phone, I can’t see a thing” Nath mutters trailing his hand on the wall to steady him on the steps. 

“Afraid I can’t see well in the DAAAAAARRRRKKKK!” she screams as the stairs suddenly shift into a slide and Nath loses his balance, sending them both shooting down the tunnel.

The slide ends when the two crashes into a lilac couch, Nath groans and stands up. The spider swears in at least three languages as she untangles herself from a fluffy pillow. Nath gawks in awe at the room he was now in, it was huge with couches where he landed like a sort of sitting room. A bar was placed on the opposite side, bottles shiny and new. Most incredible of all was the enormous stain glass windows with a butterfly print on them, although they appeared to be hidden on the other side by a concrete wall.

“Did we just fall into Hawk moth’s home?” He blurts out as he touches the large window, the cold glass fogging up from his breath.

“I don’t know…I doubt anyone upstairs knows of this place” she mumbles using one leg to scratch behind her head, there was something to this room that gave an odd feeling. Despite the situation the room felt calm and inviting, nothing like a super villain's base should feel or the cold empty energy in the Agreste house.

“So he’s using this space without their knowledge, isn’t that ill-eagle?” Nath jokes with a small smile; he pauses to wonder what his life had come to, making puns in some strange location to a giant spider on a mission to save his bird friend from some evil lady. It was like some sort of mad libs.

 

A small giggle comes from across the room, Nath turns and walks to a door slightly open on the other side of the room. 

“Hello?-“Nath pushes the door open to reveal a light blue room with two tiny beds on opposite sides of the smaller room. Baby toys litter the floor and glow in the dark stars glow dimly on the ceiling. 

“-it’s a kid’s room…”

The small giggle rings throughout the room again; Nath peers behind one of the beds and finds a small blond boy covering his laughter with his hands. Upon being spotted the child looks up at Nath with large green eyes and smiles shyly. 

“Did you think that was funny?” Nath asks bending down by his knees to be at eye level with the kid; the kid nods and muffles another giggle.

“I’m Nathaniel, what’s your name?”

The child tilts its head to the side in confusion then smiles again and grabs Nathaniel’s hand and drags him over to a toy chest, the boy pulls out a large black cat stuffed animal and shows it to him. Nath smiles politely at him and the small child pulls out several more toys in an attempt to show off. 

“This is wasting our time” the spider complains from the doorway.

“Don’t you find it strange that there’s a kid down here? Nath asks as the child takes another cartoony stuffed cat and holds it in front of him. 

“Hey that’s Felix the cat right?” as soon as Nath asks the boy starts jumping up and down pointing to the toy.

“Is that your name? Felix?” 

The boy nods calming down and pointed to the hat on Nathaniel’s head, Nath smirks and sits on his knees to show the kid.

“You like? It was a gift from a friend” he asks rubbing one of the soft fake ears.

The boy reaches to touch the ears and his hand passes right though the object like he was a projection, his smile dropping from his face. Nath was stunned for a second as he takes the child’s hand, now noticing just how cold it was. 

“He’s dead…” the spider whispers bluntly and the boy’s face scrunches up as he silently weeps, Nath automatically starts to stroke the ghost boy’s hair similar to how his mother would him. The ghost could touch items in his room and even Nathaniel, but when he tried to grab Nathaniel’s shirt his hands simply passed though. 

“Hey do you want cat ears like mine?” Nath asks forcing his voice to sound cheery; the boy wipes some tears from his face and looks up at the red head. Nath stands up and takes his jacket off, and then he uses some scissors on a nearby table that was too high for the boy to reach. The ghost boy watches as Nath cuts some of the fabric off the clothing in the shapes of triangles, and uses some glue on a hairband to put the “ears” in place. 

Nathaniel kneels down to place the hairband on the boy’s head, since the hairband was part of the room it stayed on his head instead of passing though. Although far from good quality they were perfect for the child, and his face lit up when he turned to the mirror to admire them.

 

Suddenly a cold sharp sword jabs underneath Nathaniel’s shirt, and pulls him out of the room. Nath screams and backs away as he stares at the creature. Its bottom half had long needle-like legs with a bunch of mechanical parts clicking away, and its top half was of a boneless woman. Its arms were also made from sewing needles, which had to hold up its head that flopped about lifelessly. It had the impression of a giant praying mantis with a rider on top. With an awful machine like screech it raises up to slam its needles into him, Nath thinks quickly and uses the poor jacket to tangle its legs and force it to the floor. While the creature rips the jacket to shreds Nath gets to his feet and dives behind the bar, glancing around to find the spider that was supposed to be keeping him from harm. 

A hiss brings his attention to the ceiling, where the spider gave him a wave from the chandelier she was hanging from. Coming back to the doll creature he sees its tapping away at the floor and it clicks to him that it was totally blind. He takes off his shoe and throws it over to where the chandelier was hanging, the creature screeches and charges in that direction. While his shoe is being stabbed apart Nath grabs a bottle of alcohol and throws it at the creature, with a crash the doll screeched and whipped its needle legs and arms around in every direction. The spider gets enough time for her venom to burn though the wires sending the large chandelier crashing down on the awful being, the spider leaps off to avoid the carnage and gets hit by a needle being thrown like a ninja star. She screams in pain as she’s pinned to the floor, her size shrinking down to no bigger than the smallest tarantula.

Nath runs over to pull the needle out and hold the spider in his hand “You okay?” he asks dumbly, she hisses but uses her legs to wave him off.

“I’ll be fine” 

The creature rises from the shattered glass with a massive roar; Nath puts the spider in his front pocket and races to the kid’s room. No time to grab another bottle of alcohol or try to climb up the slide. He slams the door and starts throwing whatever furniture he could grab to barricade it. Felix forms behind him and grabs his arm.

“Sorry about your room” Nath says as the creature starts banging on the door. Where was Ladybug when you needed her? Felix shakes his head again and pulls at Nath’s arm again, this time he lets the boy take him over to the toy box again. 

“I don’t have time to play…” he stops talking as the child pushes the box away revealing a tiny door behind it, Felix tries to grab the knob but his hand simply passes through it.  
The dolls horrible screech is heard against the door, wood chipping away to the creature’s needle arms. Nathaniel‘s breathing is fast as he forces the tiny door to open, a tiny tunnel is what greets him when it finally gives.

“Thanks Felix, is there any way you could come with us?” Nathaniel asks taking the small boys hand; it was so tiny in his own. Felix shakes his head and throws his arms around Nathaniel, the hug ends too soon as the barricade gives way revealing the doll with a smile that didn’t belong on any human. Felix pushes Nathaniel as he crawls though the tiny door, waving good bye then disappearing in a cloud of dust. 

“Why did you save me? I’m no use to you injured like this” the spider whimpers from his pocket, Nath listening as the doll akuma’s noise grew fainter the further they traveled.

“Guess it’s a hero thing” Nath says with an unconvincing laugh, soon they reach the end of the tunnel and find themselves in a large dark room. 

“Now where are we?” Nathaniel mutters, seconds before a light comes on by the door, quickly he ducks behind a large metal tube.

 

“Must you be so stubborn, all I ask is for you to tell me how soul strike works” Nathalie’s cold voice bounces off the walls as she enters the room. 

“I’m not going to let you hurt people with it, besides soul strike is very hard to learn” Duusu snaps floating in front of her, “you are not worthy of its power” 

“And that brat is? Don’t speak such garbage, I am your most powerful holder and I will gain that ability” Nathalie cried her voice becoming so loud it shook the metal tube the red head hid behind. His eyes widened upon seeing Duusu, her eyes showed surprise for a moment and she glanced around the room. Could she sense him? And what was soul strike?

“I’m not changing my mind” Duusu says slowly staring down at Nathalie, demanding the respect a peacock kwami deserves. The two both fall into a staring duel willing the other to break; Nath uses this opportunity to scan his surroundings. The room was shaped like a dome, but with a much higher ceiling and multiple metal bars attached to the floor and walls most of these bars had large sacks attached to them but it was unclear what was in them. There was nothing on the floor he could use as a weapon; it was clean other than the slimy black snakes at his feet.

Wait….slimy black snakes? He reacts too late and the snakes pull him into the light in front of the two interrupting their staring contest. The black snakes bite at his hands and face as he tries to push them away, he screams as they pierce the exposed skin. 

“Nathaniel!” Duusu cried trying to fly over to him to help but gets grabbed by Nathalie. Nathaniel’s thrashing weakens until he’s on the floor deadly still, the snakes slithering on his body stealing the heat. 

“Such good boys, catching the little weasel” Nathalie purred bending down to stroke the back of one of the larger ones that slid past her, “oh Duusu, this is your old weasel isn’t it? Such a shame he got bit” her voice drips with false empathy. “Now he’s going to suffer”

Duusu stares hopelessly at the boy, her body shaking with invisible sobs. “Nath get up…” she yells in a whisper, knowing full well if she raised her voice the tear ducts would open. Nathaniel remained very still, the only indicator he was even alive was the raspy breaths he could manage. 

“HOW COULD YOU? HE’S JUST A KID” Duusu screams at her captor releasing the waterfalls, finding a tiny bit of pleasure in watching Nathalie’s face scrunch up in disgust as the tears stain her sleeves. 

“I’m so sorry Duusu, if only there was a way to cleanse the soul of demon influence” Nathalie cooed pulling a sorrowful face like she was acting for a bad drama, a knowing smirk breaking the expression.

Duusu stayed quiet, struggling to free herself from Nathalie’s grip. Nathalie lets her go and Duusu flies over to Nathaniel, the snakes hiss away as she nears. Duusu wipes her tears and puts her nub on Nathaniel’s cheek, the skin around it glows a soft blue and the cold purple tinge fades away. But it wasn’t enough to get rid of all the poison that swarmed in his veins. 

“If I teach you Soul strike, will you save him?” Duusu asks softly, not looking at the other woman, and biting her lip as she pushes away some of the bangs that had fallen in front of his face. 

“Of course Duusu” Nathalie purrs putting her hands behind her back, hiding the two fingers that crossed each other. 

Nathaniel can’t speak; it’s as if his voice is blocked by bubble in his throat. He can only watch helplessly as Duusu goes over to Nathalie and begins to talk to her. Then Duusu is dragged into the miraculous on Nathalie’s chest, he had to get that miraculous. He pushes his limbs down to raise his body, limbs like lead and organs attempting to somersault. He breaths though his teeth managing to get into a crawling position, slowly inching his way closer to them. Nathalie smiles at him coldly as her body is engulfed in a dark blue light, once it dims La Paon stood proudly in her place.

“Now then, let’s fix you up” La Paon purrs preparing a long bright blue arrow, with a nod of her head one of the snakes jumped and combined with the weapon. The arrow changed from sky blue to the darkest of pits, humming with energy.

Suddenly the whole dome shakes making La Paon lose her balance and cancel the arrow, the doll akuma appears tearing though the wall in a blind rage. It stumbles into a bag hanging on the wall and begins stabbing it maliciously, creating a puddle of thick clear liquid on the floor. 

“Don’t do that you…” La Paon shouts at the creature which turns to her and screeches in her face. “Hawk moth, control your akuma” she orders into a head set and Nath can almost make out what the man was saying at the other end.

“You’ll ruin everything you stupid beast” La Paon cries racing over and preforming a royal strike underneath the monster, launching the ugly thing though the roof.

 

Chat landed on a pole, eyes glued to the sky, no moth and no Nathaniel to be found. He squints in frustration trying to spot anything that could lead to this giant insect but nothing stands out. He pulls out his baton to call Ladybug when a finger taps on his shoulder, knowing no ordinary person could do that from his height he turns to greet an annoyed Queen Bee. 

“This is Ladybug and I’s night to patrol, what are you doing out?” Queen Bee huffs and puts her hands on her hips. 

“There must be an akuma, Chat where did you see it?” Ladybug asks appearing on the ground by the two, a no nonsense expression on her face.

“I didn’t really see it…” Chat starts explaining the story Nathalie had told him, minus the walkie-talkie “and I still haven’t seen either of them”.

Bee’s face scrunches up in a frustrated light, “stupid mangy cat, we have to find him” she cries shooting off into the air. Chat stuck his tongue out in annoyance and Ladybug puts a hand on his shoulder, she was now upside down hanging from her yo-yo. “

“Don’t mind her, she gets a little huffy when she gets worried, now come on a giant insect can’t hide forever” with that Ladybug and Chat take off into the night, breaking the laws of physics as they went. 

“I’m starting to think that citizen was just off her meds” Bee grumbles as they land on the Agreste house roof to rest for a moment, before either Ladybug or Chat could reply a huge crash is heard a few meters away. They peek over to see the horrifying mess that was an akuma who was half doll half sewing machine, pulling itself up to get some footing and swinging wildly in their direction. 

“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?” Chat screams ducking to avoid a needle jabbing for his head; Ladybug uses her yo-yo to lasso and force the creature to fall over being the only one to remain calm.

“OH GOD KILL IT” Bee screams back summoning her honey dipper to slap the creature with it over and over, eyes wide in horror. The creature screeches at her and she screams at it in return, Chat joining in on both the screaming and hitting with his baton. 

Ladybug watches for several minutes as her teammates scream and hit the walking nightmare, half annoyed that they were freaking out and half amused. “Find the akumantized object guys” she calls calmly. 

“HUH…OH RIGHT” Bee continues to yell but uses her power to trap the akuma in a pool of honey, making it easy for Chat to approach the flopping head and pull out a tiny black sewing needle that stood out amongst the old fabric and smashing it on the ground. Ladybug smirks and snatches the fleeing butterfly before it could get away.

“Miraculous ladybug”

Nathaniel tries to scream up at the super heroes, but no matter how hard he tried no sound would come out. The ceiling is fixed by the hundreds of beetles sealing him within the dome once more. La Paon makes a sound to make him look over at her; she walks over to him and pulls him to a sitting position. The spider slowly uncurls herself inside his pocket and starts to create webbing on the boy’s skin, she couldn’t move fast enough to stop La Paon but maybe she could slow the poison as Duusu had slowed her own. This had to be the worst deal she’s ever made.

“Look excited little boy, you’re about to be reborn” La Paon purrs shooting a blackened arrow at Nathaniel, his screams echoing against the rooms walls. 

 

The following three weeks were tense, if it wasn’t bad enough that Nathaniel went missing soon other children began to disappear. Ladybug and her team spent countless hours trying to find the lost ones to no success and the public was starting to panic. No one was allowed to travel alone, and almost always had to be watched by an adult. No one knew what was taking these children until Juleka came running in one morning crying that a large shadow had stolen Rose away, classes were canceled soon after. By the end of the month Paris was on lockdown. 

Rena rouge stayed outside the restaurant her mother worked at, her siblings were with her hoping this would keep them safe. It was hard to leave them to search when she worried she’d come back to an empty building but she had to go. She flew off to meet up with Carapace a few buildings away who said nothing but gave her a small nod as she flew past. Neither really felt like talking, so they went across buildings in silence until a scream got their attention

In the dark night they could only see the moving shadow for a moment, leaving the glow of a cell phone in its path. They try to give chase but the shadow was long gone, Rena bites back a scream before her communicator goes off. She takes a breath then opens the call; Carapace gently grabs her shoulder to try to comfort her.

“How’s it going Rena?” Ladybug asks voice lacking its usual charm

“We were too late, someone else got taken” Rena gives a report with the same dull tone, Ladybug deflates in sadness but keeps her chin up. 

“HEY GUYS I FOUND HIM” Queen Bee’s excited voice squeals over the call, making everyone listening to wince in pain.

“What are you talking about Queenie, my ears hurt” Rena complains rubbing one of her real ears.

“I found Nathaniel, he’s on the roof of that big fancy hotel” Bee explains careful to keep her voice calm, but the giddiness was still present. 

“You found Nath? Bee stay where you are it might be a trap, you understand? Do not engage” Chat warns coming up in the conversation screen. Rena could only watch as Bee ignores Chat and the camera shifts to watch as Bee flew over to the unmistakable red head with his back turned to her, the line going dead right as she tackles him. 

“Come on” Carapace calls grabbing her hand and racing off in the direction of the hotel, Rena’s competitive instincts take over and she runs faster to lead. Carapace has a gentle smile on his face as she zips by giving off her normal energy for the first time this week.

 

“It’s really you, do you have any idea how much you’ve worried me?” Queen Bee cries back hugging the shorter male; she had tackled him with enough force that they had both nearly fallen in the pool.

“What are you talking about?” Nath asks managing to stand up and push her away, Bee heart dropped but she didn’t let it show.

“You’ve been missing for like a month Nathaniel, everyone has been worried sick about you, don’t you remember?” she approaches again slower this time, Nath’s face remained unchanged.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about…I’m just going to go” Nath turns and runs to the door to go downstairs, Bee grabs his hand just as he turns to go down and gets hit by a sense of Déjà vu. The feeling hits the floor when Nathaniel glares at her so aggressively his ocean eyes appeared purple for a second, she drops his hand and he take off leaving her with her mouth open.

 

“He just entered his house” Chat states to his communicator, watching Nathaniel go into his mom’s house like it was any normal day. He had decided to watch Nath while everyone else resumed their search for the lost ones. Ladybug tells him to keep watch and ends the call, leaving Chat to jump to a ledge to spy into the home.

Nathaniel slams the door behind him head abuzz with questions, why couldn’t he remember why he was on the roof of the hotel? And where was his left shoe? He hears noises in the kitchen and is taken back by the smells coming from it; something meaty was cooking in the oven while other sauces and veggies bubbled on the stove. Had he walked into the wrong house? Normally his mom was too busy to make dinner, much less things like roasts. Someone walks into the kitchen and sees the red head staring at the pots and drops the plate had had been carrying. Nath flinches and looks over to see a large man with a clean face and hair so blonde it appeared white, warm chocolate eyes looked at him then brightened with his smile. 

“You are Nathy aren’t you” He speaks with a thick but chirpy Russian accent, Nath nods confused and the man rushes upstairs. 

“Caline, Caline he’s home, he’s home” The man calls and seconds later the thumping of four feet come barrelling down the stairs. His mom appears and throws her arms around him, Nath stood frozen on the spot unable to think of what to do. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay” she sobbed wiping away some tears that fell from her eyes, “oh you’re probably wondering who this is-“she gestures to the tall man. “-This is Matvey my uh…”

“We have talked online for only months but when I hear Caline had lost her child I come running all the way from Moscow to take care of her, I think I can say I am of least good friend status now” Matvey chirps throwing an arm around her. The oven beeps and Matvey skips over to it, “I normally have big meal for celebration but this will have to do” he  
pulls out the largest beef roast Nath had ever seen if this was small what was considered big? 

It was late night when Nathaniel managed to convince the two adults he was okay and just needed to rest, they were understandably concerned by his lack of memory but pressuring him wasn’t going to help. He shut the door to his room and flopped onto the bed, staring at the pictures in the room. It seemed during those days he couldn’t remember he had gotten really good at drawing Chat Noir’s eyes; they looked like they were staring right at him. The eyes blinked, and Nath realized he was looking at a window.

Before Chat can say “I suck at stealth” Nathaniel opens the window and whisper yells at him.

“Chat Noir, what are you doing here?” 

“There’s a good explanation actually, I am spying…to make sure you’re not possessed by a demon again” the cat hero claims with some finger guns at the end. Nath stares at him like he had grown a flower out of his head. 

“If I had been akumantized again wouldn’t I had seen Ladybug when I woke up?” Nath asks backing up to let Chat in.

“You weren’t akumantized, at least I don’t think so…Nathalie said you were kidnapped after you broke into my house, and we hadn’t been able to find you until today” 

“I broke into your house? Why the heck would I do that?” Nath grabs at his head and starts pacing “and who is Nathalie?” 

“Wait what is the last thing you remember?” Chat’s eyes widened and he took Nath by the shoulder to end the pacing and seat him on the bed. 

“Um… I was walking home from school…that’s it” Nathaniel’s face scrunches up as he struggles to find anything else.

“…What was the homework assignment?”

“…Chapter 17 questions one though five about Napoleon, shit that’s probably overdue” Nath says in the most non caring way possible.

“Nath…that assignment was one year ago” Chat says slowly, his fake ears pinning down on his head. 

“No wait what? Are you saying I can’t remember a whole year of my life?” Nathaniel stands up holding his head in shock, “no that can’t be true”.

“It is Nathaniel…wait that spider, that spider on your shoulder must have done this” Chat pounces up to snag at the other boy’s shirt. Nath cries out as Chat digs though his hair and shirt trying to find the giant arachnid, accidentally hooking his hand and tearing the worn fabric like wet paper.

“Dude what the hell?” Nathaniel snaps watching as the torn fabric falls to the floor, his face goes pale as both notice the damage on his chest. Right where his heart would be a large black circle stained the skin, purple markings were drawn around it and it seemed to pulse with energy. Instinctively Nath touches it flinching from the tender flesh objecting, what the hell was happening?

“Nath you might not believe me but you’ve been a part of Ladybug’s team for this past year, hell you’ve been my pun partner for most of the akuma battles” Chat blurts and Nathaniel’s eyes seem to go glassy. Wordlessly he stands up from the bed and stands in front of the broken mirror, his reflection stared back at him equally lost. Some paper catches his eye and he pulls it off to reveal a childish drawing of him and some kind of bird, wings far too small to keep it in the air. The words at the bottom mocked him as no memory would come up. Chat said something to him but his heart was pounding too loud to hear, Nath found his old desk scattered with drawings he had done. Some were comic strips based off the miraculous gang; some were of him and this floating bird. The girl that had tackle-hugged him on the rooftop, and akuma’s he didn’t remember seeing before. 

Chat watches Nath shuffle though the papers in silence, allowing the red head time to absorb it all. Nath finally turned to an easel sitting in the corner of the room, untouched by the chaos the room was in. He removes the white sheet covering it to reveal the painting underneath, a golden figure emerging from a flower.

“That’s the girl that found me on the roof…” Nathaniel’s voice cuts though the silence, Chat puts a hand on Nath’s shoulder and catches him when his legs give out. “Duusu…Chat who is Duusu?” Nath asks his voice staining from emotions he didn’t understand.

Chat’s baton decides to ring just then, so Chat brings his shaking friend back to his bed and answers. 

“Hey Chat good news, we found the lost ones” Carapace’s face pops into view with a whisper, “Queen Bee and Rena Rouge are getting them out and Ladybug is healing them but we could use your help” he adds formally. 

“Where were they?”

“At the Agreste mansion, can you believe that? Hawk moth struck the same building twice it’s like he lives there or something”

Chat bites his lip and turns back to Nathaniel, the red head’s eyes were focused and glaring right at him. “Don’t worry about me, go save them” he orders so calmly Chat’s neck hair raised in alarm. It was like an entirely different Nathaniel just then. Still the cat nods and jumps off into the night.

 

Queen Bee carefully used the shoe in her hand to cut though the sack hanging on the wall, the giant cocoon spit out a clear liquid nearly getting Bee in the face. She groans as the person inside slides out unconscious like the rest, no matter how many times she did it the procedure was incredibly gross. She hands the small child to Rena who takes him through the window in the ceiling. It was pure dumb luck that she had been able to spot the pollen inside the dome that was almost invisible to the naked eye; thank goodness she could access the eyesight of the bee. The cocoon’s were covered in pollen that smelled sweet until you broke the paper skin, then the awful stink of sulfur came out followed by a lost one.

She crawled over to the next cocoon like a worker bee would its queen’s eggs, but instead of cleaning she tears though it releasing the next victim. On the ground by the mansion Rena places the child on the ground and begins CPR to clear his lungs until the medics could take over. Those who didn’t wake up on their own had to be helped by Ladybug, using her yo-yo to fill their bodies with its power until they came back to life with a gasp. Rena took to the sky again catching the eye of her illusion double livestreaming the event from the ground; hopefully it would get more people out here to help the found ones. 

Carapace was doing his best to keep the paparazzi and police off Ladybug as she worked, but it was clear they didn’t have the respect for the turtle just yet. So when Chat appeared it was a great relief to everyone. 

Queen Bee gasps as the large teen that was Ivan spilled out and landed on her, his dead weight nearly sending them both to the ground. Bee may have super strength but her wings didn’t, Rena had to assist her in bringing him outside and safely on the ground. 

“How many are left?” Rena gasps rubbing her shoulder, having not yet learned to keep breathing while carrying heavy objects. 

“Too many” Bee answers slouching for a second, she needed a long bath after this.

Suddenly a loud laugh rattles the atmosphere; black clouds made of feathers swarm the dome shading it in a horrible storm. The hero’s watch in horror as La Paon emerges from the feathers clicking her tongue and staring at them like they were food. The small crowd of people boo and hiss at the villain, she threw her head back and cackled. 

“Thank you for bringing an audience Ladybug, now the real show can begin” La Paon cries opening her arms and raising them slowly above her head, horrible noises come from the dome making everyone cover their ears. With a bang hundreds of ugly moths the size of large dogs flew out of the dome and circled the sky above the people. Dedicated paparazzi and illusion Alya try to record the whole scene while holding onto something to keep them rooted to the ground. Ladybug takes action grabbing anyone she could and whisking them to a safe location, the other hero’s getting their butts in gear soon after.

“You have to leave miss, this place isn’t safe” Carapace says to Alya, and tries to take her hand. To his surprise she zips out of his reach with an apologetic smile on her face, and then turns and runs off. She turns behind a corner not realizing Carapace was giving chase, and the turtle gasps as his civilian self’s girlfriend poofs away in an orange cloud. 

La Paon gives a small wave before the storm of feathers and giant bugs swallow her and lift into the sky, Ladybug sends her yo-yo into the cloud to try and snag her but its shot back at her from a bug’s wing. 

Chat brings her up to the top of the dome before she can even make out a word, the rest of the team soon join to find the place slimy and smelly. But all the lost children are inside, unconscious but alive.  
Ladybug continues her healing until her earrings beep in warning; the medics assure her they could take it from there and thank the hero’s for their help. There are no fist bumps this time, no one felt like it was a victory just yet.

“it was like they stole away my energy, I still feel so empty inside” a child was saying on the news later the next day, Marionette watches quietly sipping some hot chocolate her mother had made. Her father sat on the other end of the couch watching with equal concern to the child on TV and his own. He didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if his daughter had been one of those kids, saved by Ladybug sure but still suffering the effects of the attack. A buzz from Marionette’s phone brings him out of his daydream and her eyes bulge with shock. 

The update from the Lady Blog was from somewhere outside Paris, it was a short video with red marker pointing out a cloud swirling in the sky and settling behind the mountains. Marionette excused herself and went up to her room to show Tikki.

Tikki examined the video “It looks like she’s in-

 

“-Germany, somewhere in the mountains by the black forest” Ladybug finishes several minutes later; her teammates all have expressions of shock as she told them the news. 

“Is it really a good idea to leave Paris Ladybug? I mean we still don’t know if Hawk moth is gone” Chat speaks first.

“It’s not but we have to get the peacock miraculous back, La Paon needs to be stopped” Ladybug says clenching her free hand into a determined fist. 

A ping is heard on Rena’s end of the phone and she glances to her left where her normal phone sat charging into the wall. “Guys check the Lady Blog, there’s an akuma in the Achu kingdom”

Sure enough Ladybug sees the hot sandy kingdom of Achu being blown away by a creature made of wind. “So Hawk moth is going global, we need to make our way there and stop him” 

“Guess I’ll see you guys outside France soon” Chat chirps then ends the call. Not wanting to go home yet he makes his way back to Nathaniel’s to check up on him. He was about to tap on the window but it opens before he can; Nath pulls him in before he could say anything. 

“If you guys are going to Germany then I’m coming too” Nath announces with such confidence Chat could almost see the navy blue mask. 

“Look, Nath I don’t know if I can keep you safe…” 

“I’m going-“Nath cuts him off “-besides I have family there so I’ll be fine, I already convinced my mom to let me go so I’m going like it or not” 

Chat flashed an awkward smile, looks like there was no way to change his mind.

“Alright Nath, see you in Allemagne”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to play with the idea that an object could be akumatized so long as it had negative emotions surrounding it, and a old beaten doll was just what came to mind.  
> I also recall the show said that Adrien had never had a birthday party, but also said during the Christmas episode that it was his first one without his mother. That meant while Mrs. Agreste was around she also did her part to shelter Adrien, so that got me thinking what would cause a mother to be so paranoid over her child? and one thing led to another and this is what came out.  
> Also happy sunshine that is Matvey, he's got a bigger role later on but I wanted to introduce him now.


	15. Oma Blutmond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long since an update, got really swamped with work and life. But I finally found the time to complete this chapter, which I actually had to split in two in the end. Anyhoo hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 15 Oma Blutmond  
“Find me”

Nathaniel opened his eyes to find nothing but trees surrounding him, he was running but he couldn’t remember why. 

“Find me”

There it was again, a faint voice that whispered in his ear. Nath pushed branches from trees as he ran, not even the black forest was this thick. The branches cut and swiped at his face.

“Find me”

“Where are you?” Nathaniel cried growing frustrated. His eyes caught something glowing far ahead and picked up speed towards it. Just as he got within reach the ground gave way sending the red head to crash into the dirt below, he looked up to see the glowing object floating at the top of the hole looking like a full moon in the sky. 

“Find me” the ball of light cried again, its colour shifting from blue to red. “Find me, find me, find me, find me” it chanted growing smaller as it disappeared into the sky, Nath grabbed a root to climb out but the root slithers out of his hand. The black snake hisses and lunges for his face.

Nath gasps and shoots up from the seat he had fallen asleep on, luckily his sudden awakening hadn’t woken anyone else on the train. He ran his fingers though his hair and looked out the window; the almost full moon stared down at him. 

His mom wasn’t thrilled that he wanted to leave so soon after returning from…somewhere, but he convinced her that new scenery would benefit him. Although now he wished he had taken a morning train instead of the overnight one, by the time he got to his Oma’s she would still be fast asleep. The train beeped as it pulled into the station, Nath grabbed his bag he’d been using as a pillow and got off. 

He wondered for a moment how Chat and co was going to travel here, would they do so out of costume. Or would they try running the whole way? He hadn’t a clue, so he forced himself not to think about anything superhero related as he made his way through the crowds

 

“Now this is more like it” Chloe mused as she threw on a fluffy robe,” going to one of the finest spa’s in Germany was a fine idea” 

“Don’t get too comfortable, we’re here on a mission” Pollen pointed out sitting atop a pile of clean towels, flying off as Chloe grabbed one to use later. 

“Yea, yea I know” Chloe chirps grabbing her discarded clothes and throwing them in a locker, touching her ponytail to check the comb was still securely in place as she shut the door. “But I’m going to take every opportunity to enjoy the facilities until we have to go” she hummed opening a spot in her robes pockets for Pollen to fly into; Pollen rolls her eyes but snuggles in the warm robe.

“Ladybug and the others should be nearby ready to go attack La Paon when she appears, and Chat said Bleu would be nearby ready to regain his miraculous. Can you imagine spending the whole day with our Paon? Chloe’s voice squeaked and she gave a little fan girl hop. Pollen rolled her eyes, girl had it bad.

“I can’t go out there Alya, Adrien could see me” Marionette cried pulling her robe closer around her body.

“He’s also the one who invited us to this resort in the first place, besides you look adorable in that swimsuit” Alya reassured her friend, almost putting her hair up in a ponytail but changing her mind last second. Marionette took several deep breaths, it was true that Adrien had asked if they wanted to come here and she just couldn’t refuse. How lucky it was that Adrien was going on a week long trip the day after she had learned she needed an excuse to go to Germany. 

Alya wrapped her robe around herself and took Marionette’s hand to get her walking towards the pools, and it seemed Marionette was improving. She only went into “I can’t do this please let me hide in the change room” once as they went down the hall. 

 

“Come on Nino the girls are waiting for us” Adrien shouted from outside the change room, finding it too warm inside the room. His normally perfect skin was nearly shiny from the heat.

“Just go on without me, I’ll be right there” Nino replied, Adrien shrugged and started walking. Once his footsteps could no longer be heard the fully clothed Nino let out a big sigh and sat on the floor, his swimsuit still sitting in his backpack. The zipper on said backpack seemingly moves on its own and a little green turtle flies out, the turtle sits atop the bag and gives a much more relaxed sigh.

“Master Nino you have been too tense these past few days, this is the perfect opportunity to unwind” Wayzz says softly.

“Can you really blame me turtle-dude? I’ve been no help to Ladybug and team since joining; hell I’m either falling over my own two feet or being unable to keep people off Ladybug as she works. And just yesterday I thought I saw my girlfriend disappear like one of Rena’s illusions” he drops his hands to his lap and fiddles with the bracelet on his wrist “Maybe I’m not cut out for this”.

“My old master wouldn’t have chosen you if that was the case and everyone will be shaky at first. No one in your team blames you for that” Wayzz says confidently. “Perhaps your struggle is that you are trying to go as fast as the fox, next time we transform take the slow but steady route” he adds pulling out the simple green swimsuit Nino had packed away. “If my old master taught me anything it’s that a calm mind is a strong mind, so go out there and enjoy yourself. I will be in your bag when you need me” 

“There you are hot-stuff I was starting to think you chickened out” Alya called waving the teen over to the hot springs she and Marionette had chosen to begin their day with, the cold German winter being a big factor in the decision. Alya had taken off the robe to reveal a cute orange bikini underneath; it tied around her neck to hide the necklace she kept on. She stepped into the hot water first wincing slightly as it went over her scar, but keeping her hand on it to prevent others from seeing. 

Nino was next to join her as Marionette froze trying not to stare at Adrien as he stripped his robe off, he wore something his dad designed of course. Adrien wanted to cannon ball into the spring despite the risk of hitting his legs at the bottom of the shallow pool, but that was something only Chat could do. Instead he simply walked in with a modal’s grace, until he hit a rock in the water with his toe and over dramatically fell over to save his foot.

Marionette throws her robe down (thankfully not crushing poor Tikki) and rushes in to help him up, not realizing what she was doing until Alya sniggered at them. She was holding the taller boy in a princess hold while wearing a bright pink bikini. Marionette and Adrien shyly laugh and move to opposite sides of the spring, pretending the colour in their cheeks was from the crisp cold air. 

 

“Adrien you’re here too” Chloe chirped stripping off her robe to reveal a black and gold bikini that likely cost as much as Marionette’s entire wardrobe times five. Adrien doesn’t even get out a polite greeting out before Chloe slips in and slides onto his lap, holding onto his neck to look over at the other three. “Oh hi Marionette sorry did I steal your spot? She teases and both teens blush even harder if that was possible. 

Chloe laughs it off and goes to sit on the built in seats, Alya never thought she’d want to high five Chloe before this day. Chloe on the other hand realized she was spending way too much time with Rena, she shouldn’t go trying to get her childhood friend and biggest rival together like Rena tried with Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

Regardless it was absolutely hilarious 

Nath approached an office door and gave a small knock, hearing a “come in” he opens the door to see an elderly woman closing a book with a candy bar wrapper for a bookmark. The women beamed seeing him and slowly rose from the chair to give him a hug, she wore a dress with long sleeves the colour of the boy’s hair and her white hair was tucked in a tight bun.

“My little grandson, it’s been so long since I last saw you. Look, you’re almost as tall as me now” she breaks off into laughter releasing him from her arms; she was incredibly strong for her age. 

“It’s nice to see you too Oma” Nathaniel says quietly, “so…um how are you doing?” he asks unable to think of a better subject.

“Oh same old tired bones, but I still have a skip in my step” Oma chirps retaking her seat “and the pool boy just quit this morning the lazy twit, and my back doesn’t feel like it can take all that bending over”

Nath knew where this was going “Would you like me to help?” 

Her eyes lit up and pretended to be surprised “Oh would you Nathaniel? That would be wonderful”  
She jumps up with plenty of energy and hands him a shirt “here put this on, don’t want you wrecking your normal shirt now” she explains with an amused smile, Nathaniel had to tie the white shirt in a knot at the end so it didn’t dwarf him. 

“Man it’s so peaceful, it’s like we’re the only ones out here” Chloe hums taking a deep breath, the frost slowly disappearing from the sun shining through the clouds.

“I think we are the only ones out here, I thought a fancy spa like this would be packed” Alya mentions glancing around the pools around them, only a handful of other people were outside. Marionette fully believed it had everything to do with the appearance of La Paon nearby; she stared at the mountains behind her with a determined look. Soon as she could she’d be heading up those with her team to stop La Paon, but she had to wonder where the rest of her team was hiding in the meantime. 

 

Nath throws his hair up to keep it out of his face, but one glance in the mirror and he pulls out the tie to let the hair fall in his face as it normally did. He got a weird feeling seeing his bangs out of his face. He grabs the pool brush and heads out to begin the job. 

Nathaniel stares questionably at the five kids from his class in the springs then shakes his head and begins working on the nearest empty pool. It wasn’t any of his business why they were all there; maybe if he worked quietly they wouldn’t notice him.

Chloe closed her eyes and let the water relax her tired muscles, she deserved this. A moment without missing kids or fighting akuma’s, and no worries about any redhead, 

“Hey Nath” Adrien called over, Chloe shot up so quickly her blood sugar couldn’t keep up and she had to sit back down. Nathaniel bit his tongue to hold back a curse. At least he got the first pool done.

“Nathaniel, what are you doing here?” Chloe blurts out as the red head approaches the group, apparently not noticing the pool brush he had in his left hand. Course it was very possible she just didn’t know what the tool was. 

“This is where my Oma lives; I’m just helping her out” Nathaniel answers quietly turning his head unable to hold eye contact. 

“Can’t blame you for wanting to get away from Paris for a while, you were one of the lost ones right” Nino commented

“Yea…I guess I was…” Nathaniel confirms softly, now he really wished he had just waited for them to leave. If they started asking questions he wouldn’t be able to answer, and the last thing he wanted them to know was that he had lost so much memory. 

Oma walked out to the pool area, fixing her hair to keep it up nicely. Her eyes widened at the nearly empty space and she hobbles her way over to where the kids were chatting. A strong hand takes hers and she turns her head to see her assistant Lancelot helping her across the wet landscape, he smiled warmly at her like the gentle giant that he was. He was brought to her to help her in her growing age and she had taken fondly to the friendly but mute man. 

A wonderful energy washes though her bones as she steps over one of the discarded robes, bringing a small smile to her face. Kwami magic was always welcome here, even the jinxing ones like the black cat or fox. 

“Hello Nathaniel, are these friends of yours?” Oma asks smiling warmly at her guests, “You all should go for a hike up the mountains, beautiful day for it”. 

Chloe gawked at the old women and back to Nathaniel for several seconds “wait she’s your grandma?” she squeaks out. The others looked at her questionably “Mrs. Blutmond is like one of the biggest names in five star spas” Chloe explained crossing her arms defensively.

“A bit of a fan are we?” Oma chuckles and holds her grandson’s arm to keep her balance “Well if there’s anything I can do to improve your visit just ask, doesn’t look like I got many to take care of this week”.

“Thank you but I think I’ll take that idea to hike up the mountains” Marionette says politely, Alya and the boys nodding in agreement. They climbed out of the spring and quickly threw their robes on; Chloe groaned but did the same not wanting to be alone.

“Wonderful idea, Nathaniel you will take them as soon as they are ready” Oma commands taking the pool brush from his hands “I’ll find someone else to clean the pools for today”.

Nath opens his mouth to argue but is cut off by a familiar horrible voice; Adrien catches the way his body tensed turning to face Ralph coming towards them. Ralph still had a bandage around his head but otherwise looked totally healthy as he threw his thick arms around Nathaniel.

“Hey Nath I was hoping I’d find you here, can’t believe you never visited dear old dad while he was recovering in the hospital” his tone was friendly but there was an edge of aggression woven between the lines. 

“You were in the hospital?” Nathaniel immediately regrets his words as the grin fell from Ralph’s face and his grip tightened on his shoulder. His legs shook begging to run but his feet remained glued to the floor, embarrassed and ashamed this was happening in front of several classmates. 

“Um yea, I had a concussion and several broken bones from defending you against that monster. Go on tell your Oma how awesome I was” the smile returns with Ralph’s eyes darting from Nath to Oma in a silent message of “make me look good”.

“I….uh I don’t-I don’t …” 

Ralph let out a low growl and pulled Nathaniel away from Oma to where his feet were right on the edge of the spring, ignoring the quiet pleas for him to stop. Adrien decides he’s seen enough and moves in between the two forcing Ralph to take a step back.

“Nath has been though a lot, leave him alone” Adrien orders his back to Nathaniel, Ralph growled at him much louder than before. 

“This isn’t any of your business rich kid, stand aside”

“He’s had a really rough week, please let’s just calm down” Adrien kept his voice calm and glanced back at Nathaniel, he was staring at Adrien with a mixture of confusion and embarrassment but there was a pinch of gratitude as well. 

“The boy’s right Ralph, you are bringing bad energy into my hot springs” Oma pipes in

Ralph uses the opportunity while Adrien is looking away to push the boy out of his way, the action puts Nathaniel off balance and he crashes into the spring with a big splash. Nath comes to the surface with a gasp for air, Alya lends him a hand out while Nino helps Adrien to his feet. 

“Ralph that was absolutely barbaric, you will clean these pools today and cleanse them of the hateful energy you’ve dumped in them” Oma snaps grabbing her son by the ear, turning the larger man into a whining child. She turns to Nath, seeing the poor boy try not to shiver in the cold breeze.

“Go get some dry, warm clothing on wee Welpe. Ralph will apologize as soon as he’s done his work” she says bringing her voice back to its gentle hue using her favorite pet name for him. Her hand lingered over his chest where a strange energy lapped at her fingertips; she couldn’t tell if it was kwami magic or demotic energy. 

Chloe whips out the towel she was preparing to bind her hair in and wraps it around Nathaniel while he squeezes some of the water off his dripping wet hair. He nearly cowered when she got close, and the look he gave her nearly broke her heart. It was the same one he had when they were at a party she had thrown when she had first started trying to be nice to people (ended up akumatizing her butler but that’s another story). 

Oma drags Ralph by his ear as far away from the group as she could get, finally letting go once they were out of earshot. The large but silent Lancelot stayed behind momentarily to walk the children back into the heated building.

“Ralph what has gotten into you these past years?” She starts keeping her voice calmer then she felt

“I grew up, had to learn to live in a world that would never accept me. Where my own mother wouldn’t accept me” 

“I just want to you to be proud of me Mama” Ralph cried throwing his hands up in the air.

“Proud” she echoed “how can I be proud of a son that runs away from his born family, then the family he created, and then treats the wonderful creation of that family like dirt? You want me to be proud? Then stop running away when things get hard, own up to your actions and emotions and just please stop pretending to be this emotionless sack of muscle” 

“Ran away my ass, I made something of myself. I wasn’t going to waste my life on stupid hot tubs with happy energy, I became a lawyer Mama and you didn’t even care” Ralph snapped not caring how loud his voice was getting. “And what Cal and I created is going to turn out to be nothing if he stays how he is, no man that weak and timid can live in this world”.

“The moon smiled upon his birth…the bl-” her voice cracks 

“Don’t start with that moon crap” he cuts her off only now seeing the tears falling from her aged face

“I can understand you hating this place, I can understand you hating Caline after your messy divorce, I can even understand you hating me for not loving every step you took in life. But to hate your own child because they didn’t turn out the way you wanted is beyond my understanding. A child that did nothing to deserve the backlash for your mistakes”

She handed him the pool brush, wiping the tears away using her massive sleeve “maybe cleaning all these pools will release all that anger you’ve buried your soul in”. With that Oma took the hand of Lancelot who was waiting a few steps away and allowed him to lead her back inside

Ralph growled now alone and began scrubbing the nearest pool as if it was to blame for all his troubles in life, angrily ranting to the waters in a jumbled mess of French and German. 

The group of six make their way to path to the mountains though the forest each had changed into much more suitable clothing for hiking. They wore long pants and large coats, as well as warm boots for the rough terrain, except Chloe who was wearing designer sandals. Nath was also wearing the cat eared toque to protect his still slightly damp hair from freezing over.

“So have you done this hike before?” Marionette asks the redhead, careful not to bring up recent events. 

“Plenty of times, there’s tons of places with great views here” Nath says scratching behind his head eyes on the dead leaves on the ground, “Take those ruins over there for example” he adds pointing to what was once a castle or house made of stone.

The group went over to these ruins to explore, Nath automatically going up the half crumbled stairs to reach a window at the top. Here he could see everyone since the rest of the second floor had been destroyed, Marionette was using her phone’s light to peek into the only room with a roof and jumped back as a pigeon flew out defending its nest. Adrien laughed for a moment before his feather allergy started up and he was caught in a sneezing fit. Alya and Nino were talking and taking pictures using the stone windows as the background. He didn’t see Chloe however, did she lag behind?

“Hey” her voice right by his ear nearly sends him off the ledge he was sitting on; he turned to see the blonde bully staring at him oddly. Her big blue eyes lacked their usual fire and she sat on the dirty stairs next to him not minding the dirt that attached to her fancy pants.

“Hey…” he echoed attempting to shuffle away but found he was already on the edge, trapped. 

“Do you always find a perch to watch everyone? You’re like a bird” she joked trying to weaken the ice that had formed between them; Nath seemed to relax somewhat but remained quiet. 

“Look…I can’t imagine how scary it must have been being captured by hawk moth like that, but you can talk to me about it if you’d like…I mean we are friends right?” 

“We are?” Nath’s voice turned up in a questioning tone, why was Chloe talking to him like this? He re-examined her eyes finding them showing concern and obvious hurt at his comment. Guilt bit him hard. 

“…I thought we were-“she mutters picking at her shirt “we didn’t talk much but you’re always wearing that hat I got you”

“You got me this?” Nath pulls the spoken item off his head running a hand though his hair to shake up the damp threads from sticking to his head. Her look of concern changed to that of complete confusion. 

“I’m sorry Chloe it’s just…It’s just that my heads been in a scramble lately” he paused for a moment, “guess Hawk moth did quite a number on me” he ends with an unconvincing laugh.

“That must have been tough” Chloe’s words are more a statement then a question but he nods anyway. She bites her lip then snaps her fingers with an idea in mind. “It’s not much but here” she takes out her phone and shows him the same photos Rose had shown him on her phone all those months ago. Even the video had been downloaded from the sunshine girl. 

Nathaniel stares at the photos in silence, polite enough not to snatch the girls phone from her hand. It was like looking at childhood photos, he could recognize it was him but at the same time the red head pushing the blonde out of the akuma’s path was a stranger. 

Alya calls to them to come down and Chloe returns the phone to her pocket, careful not to squish the extra member hiding inside. The two don’t say anything as they rejoin the group and continue their way to the mountains. 

The mountains were beautiful but cold and empty, aside from a few plants and a mouse. Marionette kept her eyes open for any sign of the kwami thief not realizing everyone aside from Nathaniel was doing the same. There wasn’t even a normal sized moth to offer any clues to her whereabouts. They got to a point where Nath suggested they turn back otherwise they’d be walking back in the dark.

Marionette stuck her hands in her pockets to keep them warm, eyes cast to the ground in thought. Maybe she should have gone to Achu first, she didn’t even have signal here to check if that akuma had caused more damage or if it was hurting anyone. But she and her team had chosen to save the peacock kwami first; La Paon was a much bigger threat with that giant moth army. 

Alya had a devilish smile on her face as she walked behind Nino, right as they reached the bottom of the mountain she jumped off a stump and wacked him in the back. 

“TAG YOU’RE IT” she cries taking off in a run through the woods, Nino staggers confused for a second then bounds after her.

Adrien’s eyes widen and he takes Marionette’s hand not noticing her heart skip a beat as he does so.

“Come on Marionette, let’s play too” he yells already racing off, Marionette twitches in her normal “Crush did something” spasm then gets a grip. Her shoes pounding the ground as she gave chase. 

“Ugh those guys are such children, as if I would play such a game” Chloe scoffed putting her hands on her hips. She glances at Nathaniel to see a cheeky expression for a second, and before she could react he had slapped her on the back. 

“Tag you’re it” he calls darting off after the rest of the group.

“Oh you’re so on Kurtzberg” 

Unknown to them a leaf blew in the wind and got stuck in midair, that is until the invisible shield went down revealing the villains and the moth army staring them down. 

“So carefree the young are, how much blood can we spill before the miraculous brats show up?” La Paon purred fanning herself slowly. She heard a flap of wings and looked up to see a little butterfly fall into her hand. “Ah you’re back” she coos forcing its disguise to fade, a large white moth stood in its place. 

“Master there is someone you can use but I must advise against attacking here, this land…”

“What have I told you about questioning me?” La Paon cut the bug off threatening to slice its wings with her nails. The bug made a whining sound and flew off to sit on Hawk moths hand; the taller man stared at it almost in remorse.

“Hawk moth I know you were stalling when you sent him in, you can sense negative emotions from afar. Are you going soft on me?” 

Hawk moth shuffled his feet without making a sound, “no it’s not that…” he trails off as she glares at him.

“Do you fear me Mr. Agreste?” she asked her voice dropping to one that wasn’t human, Hawk moth unconsciously took a step back. 

“…I do not” he hissed staring her in the eye, his neck hairs rose as her eyes mirrored a predator. “Let us begin ” he says closing his hand over the moth and staining it black and purple. After a moment of silence the floating mask appears over his eyes and he gave his usual “I give you powers you do this for me” charade. 

La Paon calls one of the giant moths over, and Hawkmoth flinches as it flies past him. Sensing the pain gathered from the children of Paris oozing off the insect. Normally when he created an akuma he used his own negative emotions to fuel the akuma’s power. These moths were different, and they weren’t just his to control. 

“Go awaken the Black Prince” she orders the giant insect, watching it fly off into the trees then raising her arms to signal the rest of the army to swarm. 

 

Nathaniel has the home advantage and easily manages to catch up with Marionette still in hot pursuit of Adrien both clearly not used to the forest terrain. Adrien trips on an upturned root and is sent flying down the path, expertly using his face to catch himself.

Nath bursts out laughing, jumping over Adrien “Sorry can’t stop, angry blonde on my tail” he yells back seeing Chloe gaining on him. Unlike Nathaniel Chloe steps right on Adrien’s head throwing it back into the mud, almost forgetting to throw an apology out for doing so. Adrien wipes the dirt off his face and sees Marionette now by his side giving the retreating blonde some mad stink eye; she turns back to him with a look of concern. 

“I’m okay, but looks like I’m it now” he laughs playfully, making his voice low and “scary”. Marionette giggles at him and takes off, going slow at first to allow him time to get up and chase her “you’d better run” he calls.

“Nathaniel slow down” Chloe cried from behind him, Nath not picking up the serious tone until he hears a yelp behind him followed by a crash. He stops and races back to find Chloe grabbing her ankle and holding back tears. She turns angrily to him and points to her shoe trapped in a log nearby, looks like she got it trapped then tumbled down into the rocks. 

“Are you okay?” Nathaniel asks snatching the sandal and kneeling down next to her, his shyness forgotten for the time being. 

“Does it look like I’m okay? Dummy I twisted my ankle” 

Nathaniel sighed and turned his back to her “okay get on” 

“You want me to…?”

“Yea, I’ll give you a ride back”

“Seriously”

“I’m stronger then I look”

Chloe shrugged and climbed onto Nathaniel’s back, “don’t you dare drop me”

“No promises” Nath holds back a laugh as her grip tightens around his shoulders. Maybe it was the clear mountain air but he felt much more comfortable with her being so close now. His heart trying to beat out of his chest must be from the chase. 

He has really toned shoulders, Chloe notices while she puts her hand on them to balance herself. Damn it looked good up close. Chloe mentally slaps herself, no thinking like that, she chose her peacock. Nathaniel was just a friend, a friend with really good back muscles… No, bad Chloe, focus on something else. Like the rumble of something behind them.

“Ha, Ha race you there” Adrien zooms past them carrying Marionette in the same piggy back fashion, Marionette cheered him on having the time of her life.

A competitive spark is lit and Nathaniel picks up speed using the downward hill to his advantage, instead of leaning back to keep his balance he jumped and allowed gravity to do the rest. The jump skip let him zip past Adrien and get a head start on the flat part. Adrien was right on his heels as they passed Alya and Nino resting on a rock waiting for them.

“Oh we have got to win, giddy up Nino” Alya shouts leaping onto her partner as he stands up and slapping him on the back to make him hurry after them, Nino somehow doesn’t face plant and slowly starts to gain on the others. 

Adrien had the lead when Nathaniel broke off from the path and began climbing a hill to his left; the other boys were too focused to notice he had left the group.

“Nathaniel the path is that way, we’re going to lose” Chloe commented trying but failing to pretend like she didn’t care.

“Relax I got this”

“Just where are we GOOOOOOOING?” she screamed when Nathaniel reached the top of the hill and began leaping down the slope like a mountain goat, she tightened her hold  
pleading not to get injured or killed.

Nathaniel couldn’t hold back a laugh, “I told you, I got this” he echo’s sliding to the bottom just left to the start of the path. He gets a good distance ahead by the time Adrien and Nino come into view. 

A loud clap of thunder nearly made him drop Chloe. “I don’t remember a storm being part of today’s weather” he muttered. 

“Looks like a big storm is coming” Adrien adds flinching as the first few raindrops hit the back of his neck, suddenly an energy ball nearly hits Nathaniel’s foot and in his panic to dodge he slipped and landed on his butt. Chloe cursed behind him. A figure appears atop a large rock, and jumps down to tower over the two. 

He was one of many akuma who gained a ridiculous skin colour, this one being a sickly purple.. His body had also transformed to that of a muscular wolf/ human mix, and around his neck was a black stone tied with rope. 

“Game on losers, Toxic Masculinity will take you out” the akuma screamed and began firing some kind of purple energy blast at them. Nath somehow gets them both out of the way in time before the energy hits the ground leaving a deep hole in the ground. 

“Ralph?” 

“Not anymore wimp, it’s all toxic now” the akuma laughed turning his attention to the redhead, before anyone could react Toxic slams the boy into the ground with enough force he’s knocked unconscious. Then the purple mask appearing over Toxic’s face for a moment. The akuma turns tail and begins to fire at the building, screams could be heard as the building envelops in smoke.

Oma looks up from her book at the sound of shattered glass, a strange purple liquid landed on her desk and burned though the old wood. Alarmed she looks out the broken glass and sees Toxic outside.

“Lancelot, fetch me my stick” Oma orders rushing out of the room, nearly smacking into her silent helper. He appears concerned but goes to do as she asked. 

 

“I’m going to get help” Marionette cried running as fast as her legs would allow towards the building, Nino and Alya following behind her. Once inside each go off in a separate direction claiming to be looking for a phone or person that could help. 

Chloe and Adrien rush over to Nathaniel, Adrien checks for a pulse and finds one thankfully. Toxic was ignoring them for the time being, instead he was blasting one of the springs into a muddy puddle.

“We need to get him inside” Adrien states and Chloe nods in agreement, but the act of moving an injured person when you are also injured is too much for Chloe’s ankle. Before Adrien can attempt doing it alone, a giant moth appears behind him and yanks him up into the air. 

Adrien lets out a meme worthy scream coming face to face with the bug. The moth flies up fully intending to take Adrien with him, but is stopped when Adrien takes off his boot to pound its head in. Both of them fall into the woods with a yelp shielded from view by the trees.

Chloe’s scream dies in her throat as the slightly grey sky is swallowed by thousands of giant moths, in its centre held La Paon in the flesh. Nathaniel groaned bringing Chloe’s attention back to him; she leaned over him grasping the side of his face with her hand. 

“Chloe get down”

Chloe obeys and covers Nathaniel as Ladybug appears on scene securing Toxic in her yo-yo’s string and pulling him to the ground. Chat Noir pounces out of the woods and uses his baton to hit away any moths that came too close to them. 

Rena runs over to Chloe and Nathaniel and checks him for signs of life, “he’s breathing-“ effortlessly she throws him onto her shoulders “-come on girl let’s move”. 

Toxic untangles himself from the string and blasts Ladybug back with a powerful punch, she hits the ground just as the skies ripped open. The pouring rain creates puddles that furthered her misery from the hit. Lightning was the only light source among the angry rain clouds and moths blocking the setting sun

Chat slaps a giant moth high into the clouds “if these bugs could just go away it would be moth appreciated”. The next moth spits in his face, and he uses his baton to as a baseball bat to knock it away, groaning in disgust as he wipes the gunk off. 

Rena has to balance Nathaniel while using her flute at any bug that dared cross her path with Chloe limping behind, she’d complain about the cold and the wet later. A black arrow pierces the earth in front of her; Rena has only seconds to hit away the next one. “Could really use your shield right about now slow poke” she yelled towards the building. 

“I’m here” Carapace yells sliding on the wet ground to deflect the next arrow. 

La Paon gives a sound of annoyance and prepares another arrow this time at Ladybug, who was too distracted by toxic attempting to punch her into next week.

“Ladybug, look out!”

“Enough” a new voice shouts and a strange energy rises from the ground around them, Ladybug gawks in surprise as Toxic slows down until he’s frozen in place, the rain defying gravity paused in the air. She turns her head to see a blackened arrow also frozen midair and moves out of its path her heart pounding in her chest.

Oma strides over to the paused battle a dangerous look in her eye. Lancelot trailed behind her carrying a massive walking stick with a rounded end at the top. 

Rena bites her lip unsure of what was happening “Carapace I thought you took her to safety” she accused.

“When does anyone listen to the turtle?” He asks back sarcastically.

Oma observes the scene, gasping aloud when her eyes fall on her grandchild in the grass. A hiss from above brings her attention to La Paon fighting against the freeze spell, Oma glares at her with such intensity lasers might as well roasted the villain into a nice chicken cordon bleu. 

“Lancelot, bring the children to safety” Oma commands and Lancelot pounces into action. Rena opens her mouth to tell him she had it under control but her voice dies in her throat. When Lancelot hit the ground he was no longer human, instead a massive grey wolf stood in front of them. 

The wolf whined and wagged the bottom of its tail, gesturing with its head to its back. Rena nods and puts her load across the wolf’s back. 

“Whoa, hold on a moment, what are you doing? What’s going on here?” Chloe pipes in standing up to place her hands on the wolf and Nathaniel, Rena bit back a chuckle. She had no idea what to say to the blonde. 

The wolf takes one look at Chloe and gestures for her to get on as well; Chloe hesitates so Rena assists her onto the massive wolf. And by assist I mean Rena just chucked the blonde onto the wolves back with little regard for being gentle. Chloe doesn’t hold back a scream as Lancelot takes off and she holds onto his fur for dear life. In her coat pocket she could feel Pollen whacking her with her nub to transform and help out, but she’d just have to wait for the ride to be over. 

“Why’d you do that?” Carapace asks crouching low as the raindrops were beginning to move again.

“Couldn’t think of a good argument to convince her to get on a big wolf” Rena deadpans readying her flute. 

 

Lancelot entered a cave that was invisible to the outsider’s eye and lays down to allow the two on his back to slide to the ground. Chloe spares a second to check on Nathaniel and gets up to run out, but is blocked by the massive wolf. 

“Move you dumb mutt” Chloe snaps shifting left and right trying to sneak past the beast, Lancelot was having none of it and blocked her path each time. 

Pollen slips her head out impatiently and spots Nathaniel curling himself into the fetal position on the floor, with a determined huff she leaps out to fly in front of the wolf’s face. 

“You heard the girl, step aside” 

Lancelot growls softly at the bug then backs down. Pollen puts her nubs on her hips with pride until Chloe grabs her out of the air.

“Pollen I thought you couldn’t reveal yourself”

“He’s a familiar, he won’t tell anyone” Pollen explains and Lancelot nods behind her. Chloe looks like she wants to say something but shakes her head, focus on the bigger picture.

“We’ll have to change your costume a tad, can’t have you in heels with a sore ankle” Pollen blurts flying over to adjust the comb in her holder’s hair so it stood upright.

“But that’s our stinger, we need our stinger” Chloe shook her hands in the air.

“Relax; you’ll still have the stinger. And no it won’t be on your bee-hind” Pollen claims with her face breaking out in a cheeky smile.

“Don’t you pun with me-“Chloe points her finger accusingly. 

“Pollen stinger out”

 

All hell breaks loose as the moths and rain pelt down with overwhelming intensity, Rena starts a song on her flute to create an illusion but the moths rip the weapon from her hands. The resulting illusion of a fly swatter is so weak it crumbles out of existence before it could do anything.

Ladybug and Chat are forced back to back, spinning their weapons to keep the insects away. Ladybug glances to her left and quickly grabs Chat and jumps as Toxic slams his fist into the ground where they once stood.

“Leave the cat and bug to me toxic, why don’t you go eat the fox” La Paon commands summoning her fans dripping with black poison and approaching the teens. Toxic shrugs and leaps over to Rena and Carapace with a snarl, venom dripping from his fangs. 

“Normally I don’t hit girls but I’ll make an exception for you”

“You’re really behind on the times if that’s your fighting words” Rena gives a snarl of her own and charges the akuma, locking them both in a dog fight. Toxic going on all fours and pounces on her, but Rena bites his shoulder and claws at his face until she could kick him off. 

Carapace makes his way over to Oma, “you have to get to safety” he urges her to come with him. Oma shakes her head and catches moth midair and stabs it to the ground, Carapace tightens his jaw in frustration. 

 

“You don’t have a chance of winning Ladybug, hand over your miraculous stones and I’ll consider letting at least one of you live” La Paon claims placing a fan on her left cheek.

“Not happening” both Ladybug and Chat say at the same time, Ladybug glances at the sky and sees a yellow light shooting down towards them and smirks as a plan comes to her head. 

“But I might consider if you tell me why you are doing this” Ladybug adds patting Chat on the arm to secretly tell him to play along. 

“They do say curiosity killed the cat” La Paon purrs 

“And satisfaction brought it back, so please tell us La Paon” Chat finishes copying ladybug’s pose of the hands on the hips.

“Well if you really want to know-“ La Paon starts then whips behind her to grab the flat boot attached to Queen Bee  
“-you’ll have to try better than that”. With a flip of her wrist she threw the yellow hero into them with such force they all go flying back a few meters.

Queen Bee flies up and can’t even apologize before the moth army starts swarming towards her attracted to her wings glowing light. In her panic she flies off attracting even more of the insects, which although bad for her was immensely helpful to Ladybug and Chat for the time being. 

Carapace takes a moment to catch his breath, Wayzz claimed a calm mind was a strong mind. He scanned each teammate, Rena had Toxic in a choke hold and was reaching for the necklace around his neck. That had to be the akumantized object. Oma had her eyes closed in concentration, but her face scrunched up whenever a large moth came near. Ladybug and Chat were now co-fighting with La Paon in a vain attempt to wear her down to reveal an opening. Finally Bee was flying in circles in the air having to flap harder than normal to keep her body in the air while dodging larger raindrops and the “fan club” behind her. The rain, Carapace’s eyes widened and he looked to his shield, maybe it could work. 

“Bee fly over here” he calls to her cupping his hands to be heard over the rain. Bee doesn’t hesitate and changes her flight to zoom towards him, the army behind her eagerly following. 

Rena gets thrown off by the much more muscular akuma and lands in a puddle nearby, her ears pin to her skull despite not being real and she growls in challenge.

When Carapace yells to her it seems to bring her out of whatever animal instinct she had locked herself in. She picks up her flute laying in the mud and races over to the turtle, following his instructions to stand behind him and ready her flute. Toxic charges them ready to swallow them whole.

Bee flies over the heads of the two heroes’ and Carapace swings his shield in a circle and just as the moths are in front of him he slams the shield to the ground. 

“Shell shock” 

Lightning blasts out of the shield and sure enough the electricity rides up the raindrops to create a force field of electric power. The moths can’t move in time and fry to a crisp in less than a minute. 

“That was awesome!” Bee shouts 

“Nice job Carapace” Rena adds releasing the illusion in front of them to reveal the hole Toxic had created earlier. Toxic had fallen in fooled by the false ground and was now desperately trying to claw his way out.

Oma tightens her grip on her stick, the smell of smoke hung in the air despite the pounding rain. In horror she watches energy balls shoot from the hole where her akumantized son was and disappear into the clouds. The intense negative energy mixed with the sky and shot lightning bolts down, striking the trees and setting them aflame. 

Ladybug cried out in pain as a fan slides across her torso slicing though the magical fabric, she holds the wound and blocks the next swing with her arm. Being only used to being slammed into things or blunt attacks had her unprepared to properly block. The fan slices her wrist and could have taken her whole hand had Chat not stepped in slamming his baton into La Paon’s throat. 

“You okay LB?” he asked while utilizing his fencing skills to keep the sharp feathers away, unable to turn and check on her at the moment. 

“I’ll live” her confident voice weakens looking at the damage on her wrist, it just had to be her yo-yo hand. 

La Paon was a powerful fighter, but even with the miraculous on her chest she was no peacock. Her long dress had a slit that allowed some free movement but it was awkward and slow. She didn’t dance across the battle like past peacocks did, her steps heavy and loud. She used her demotic powers to tilt the battle in her favor often, slamming Chat away from her whenever he had an opening. 

A low but powerful howl echoes from the woods, Oma gasps and moves towards the hole where the other three were trying to snag the akumantized object from Toxic. The akuma had his body pinned down to the ground to avoid their hands and would snap his jaws when they touched him.

“One of you please check on my grandson, something is terribly wrong” she pleads hugging her hand, Bee is quick to volunteer and flies off in the blink of an eye. Once gone Carapace hears the dreaded beeping of his miraculous so Oma points him in the direction of the safe house where the rest of the guests were hiding.

“Chat and Ladybug need help” Rena realizes turning her head from the akuma to the battle, Chat starting to get sloppy from lost energy. Oma puts her hand on Rena’s shoulder and gives her a small smile. 

“Just keep Toxic contained, I’ll go assist” she chirps and careened her way over to La Paon, normally Rena would stop the crazy old lady from hurting herself. But after Lancelot she was curious what the old woman had in mind.

“Can you keep a secret?” Oma’s voice was powerful but playful.

Before Ladybug could reply Oma strikes the ground with her stick, a blast of warm wind swarms the battlefield. Ladybug and Chat gasp at the sight. Her hair falls down her back absorbing the colour of her dress, turning it a bright blood red. The dress in turn becomes beautiful silver with yellow symbols on the sleeves. Oma spins the staff around, her face becoming young and vibrant. 

La Paon’s eyes widened in realization and fright, this was what the moths were warning her about. 

“Demons are not allowed on this land. So long as the energy of this place was positive I was happy but look what you’ve done.” Oma snaps gesturing to the pouring rain and the fires remaining strong “this negative energy will ruin my garden, my hot springs, and-“,she raises the stick once more, her eyes flashing yellow. “-You’ve hurt my grandchild” her voice lowers to a hiss, and she stabs the earth with the stick. 

The hero’s struggle to maintain balance from the shock wave that erupted from the stick, Ladybug gasps as red lines appear on the ground forming some sort of pentagram. La Paon shrieks in a combo of fear and pain as chains burst from the ground and slither around her arms. With a tug it forces her to her knees, La Paon looks to Ladybug silently pleading for her life. 

“No creature hurts one of my family and lives” Oma growls gathering red energy into her stick. Ladybug gulps and looks to her busted wrist. It would hurt but she couldn’t just let La Paon die, not even after everything she had done. 

“Lucky charm” 

Ladybug bites back a whine of pain and she catches a tiny cat doll in her hands, she groans trying to figure out what to do with it. 

“A Felix the cat doll” Chat’s voice turns up in question.

La Paon takes one look at the doll and screams, pulling against the chains to no avail. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Ladybug.

“Who is Felix La Paon?” Ladybug asks walking closer to her thrusting the doll in the villain’s face. La Paon screams a word salad that doesn’t make any sense, a broken version of her. 

Chat doesn’t quite follow what’s happening but joins in “who’s Felix” he asks in the most demanding voice he could manage, wincing when all she does is scream more. He makes a grab for the peacock miraculous but she starts kicking frantically and moving too much to let him get close.

 

The voices scream at La Paon, questions she didn’t want to hear. The extra presence in her mind abandoned her, fearful of the old women’s power. For the first time in a long while her mind was just her own, flooded with guilt and shame. They lifted a memory coated with the memory of naïve laughter and innocence being ripped away.

“Felix, Felix, Felix” the voices chanted.

“Nathalie” a calm voice chirped.

Nathalie opened her eyes and found herself in a completely white room, she was still dressed as La Paon but she didn’t feel the usual rush of power the form gave.

“Nathalie” the voice called her attention, she turns her head to see Nathaniel as Paon Bleu standing behind her. 

“What are you doing here?” she growls at the boy, growing frustrated when his facial expression doesn’t change. 

“How could you do that to Felix?” he asks staring right though the mask of La Paon.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” her response is strained and automatic “wait, you’re trying to trick me aren’t you”. Nathalie summons her fans “I know you’re capable of transforming into past users, I know what you’re trying to do, and I WON’T BE MADE A FOOL OF, DUSSU” 

She starts whipping the fans at the redhead sending waves of wind though him, literally. The amount of wind should have blown him back but he remained standing while his image blurred like a waters reflection. 

Nathalie continues firing until she tires herself out, frustration burning to ash. Nathaniel or the illusion of him shakes his head as if he was watching a child throw a temper tantrum.

“Perhaps you’d rather this?” the illusion fades into a blue smoke then forms solid as a much taller figure, this one owning striking green eyes. Nathalie tightens her grip on the fans and chokes back a sob, finding it much harder to cover her emotions here. The illusion of Mrs. Agreste pulls out a fan of her own and waves it at Nathalie, the gentle wind dissolves the costume of La Paon like it was ashes on the ground. Nathalie’s hair unravels from its tight bun as well, the limp hair slapping the back of her neck and covering her ears. 

Nathalie collapses to her knees sobbing openly now, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” she hides her face in her hands. Mrs. Agreste walks up to her and puts a hand on the other woman’s head, the touch was gentle but cold.

“Nathalie you did a very bad thing” Duusu uses the woman’s voice “you let your emotions cloud your judgement and look what happened”.

A scene formed in the fog, Nathalie begged not to see it but her pleas were ignored. Characters and objects looked like clouds as they swirled around each other, the two looked like a younger Mrs. Agreste and Gabriel. The clouds stopped their dance and the female one gained a large belly, then a third cloud character appeared with a similar belly and both female clouds jumped in excitement while the male moved like it was chuckling silently. Nathalie sobbed knowing what would happen next.

The clouds shifted into an image of a hospital room, with the cloud shaped like her sobbing into her hands. A male cloud sitting beside her patted her on the back then “left” the room. 

The clouds disappeared once more and reformed into a room just like the one Nathaniel had found not long ago, she could hear a baby’s cooing coming from the crib that formed. Then the Mrs. Agreste cloud appeared cuddling another baby in her grasp.

It wasn’t fair. The same feelings of sadness, envy and anger hit Nathalie so hard she retched several times, Mrs. Agreste stayed silent putting her hands at her sides.

Then the clouds formed her standing in front of a mirror, and some of the mist became lavender and created a hand reaching out to the Nathalie cloud. The Nathalie cloud took the hand and the clouds lost their shape and swirled around each other. 

Nathalie covered her eyes “please no more, I’ve seen enough”.

Mrs. Agreste gave her a cold look, then pulled Nathalie’s hands down to watch the last scene. The Nathalie cloud walked into the nursery with the lavender cloud covering her face and hands, the baby now a tiny toddler only about two years at most ran to her. He was excited to see the lady that played with him when his Mommy was at work. His brother clumsily ran after him, his cat pajamas and slippers making it hard to stay up. The children’s delight is suddenly shaken as the Nathalie cloud grabs the closest one by the throat and throws a pillow over his face. 

Nathalie covers her ears as the sound no person ever would want to hear thunders though her memory, the sound of a mother finding one of her own ripped away from her. 

“She had been seeing visions of demons for months, so she never suspected her own friend of doing the deed” Mrs. Agreste hisses switching to third person.

“He promised he would make it even, I thought he was going to give my baby back” Nathalie confessed “I was wrong”

“And in return he could enter your body whenever he wished to watch the world” Mrs. Agreste’s tone changed from a cold female’s to a deep males.

Nathalie gasped as the illusion of Mrs. Agreste faded away and a massive peacock stood in her place, making the women appear tiny in comparison. “So you finally show your true self Duusu” she forces out.

The giant peacock opened its wings and threw Nathalie on her back from the wind, “you hurt not one but two of my pea chicks” she or rather he stated. Nathalie felt fresh tears fall from her face, fearing for her life once more. 

“And as we speak a powerful creature is preparing to destroy you” Duusu adds bringing his head down to poke her with his beak. “Every fibre in my being wishes to let you be eliminated, but I know my newest pea chick wouldn’t approve so instead I offer you a chance to begin your redemption”

Nathalie looks up realization dawning on her face “you want me to give up the miraculous…but he’s still out there, he’ll take over again” 

“And we will work to free you from his influence, but I must return to him”

“but I can’t, he won’t let me let you go” Nathalie cried seeing more purple smoke appear around the white room, the demon could still influence her actions and was making that clear. 

“You have to try Nathalie”

 

Outside La Paon’s mind Oma finishes charging her weapon and shoots it towards the sky, the clouds dart away and the full moon shines down. Its normal white exterior turning red and a blast of energy shot from it down towards the trapped La Paon. 

Ladybug and Chat had already exhausted using the lucky charm and pleading with the grandmother to stop. Even if she could stop the process it’s not like she could hear them over the wailing wind.

Back inside her mind, Nathalie brings her hands towards her chest and grasps the miraculous. She whimpers when purple snakes coil around her arms and start to pull back.

“I…I…”

“Try!”

“I…I renounce thee!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to take out the first scene with the hot springs, but I smiled every time I reread it so I decided to keep it. Oma is based off my own grandma, who passed away not too long into me starting this fic, and since she was the only person in my life that loved me despite all my flaws and helped me overcome some. I decided to immortalize her in this fic, with a few changes of course ;)  
> And Should I call this Au now? I kinda feel like I should


	16. a royal meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It lives!! ended up taking an unintentional holiday break from writing, got to spend time with family and whatnot. But I'm back and the break gave me time to plan some later chapters out, thanks for reading, giving kudos and commenting.

Chapter 16, a royal meeting  
Ladybug and Chat duck for cover as the beam swallows the peacock villain whole, Ladybug can almost make out her last words above the blast. When the light dies down a crater is burned into the earth, but no person is found. Chat is first to dare to jump down and comes back shortly holding the peacock miraculous which although burned it was in one piece. 

“…She’s gone” Ladybug says at last, being the first to break the silence that had fallen. 

“Holy ffffu-fox” Rena cries from a few feet away, her jaw nearly dislocated from her head. Oma gives a small humph in triumph and her transformation changes back to her old self, the amount of energy used makes her have to go find a place to sit down.

“Okay…” Ladybug takes a deep breath, watching Oma go towards the safe house “moving on…Rena do you have the akuma contained?” 

“Yea…I mean parts of the forest are still on fire but I got him trapped” Rena puts her hands on her hips confidently only for an explosion to go off behind her, her expression drops. She turns around to see Toxic free from the crater and blasting parts of the spa to pieces. 

“Chat go find the real Paon, I got this” Ladybug orders forgetting her wrist for the moment, she bites back a cry when she flips her yo-yo towards the akuma missing by a quite a bit and pulling it back. Rena gets her butt in gear and launches herself at the akuma, Toxic snaps his jaws at her but she still manages to pull the rock from his neck. 

“There now it’s contained” Rena states waiting for the butterfly to appear.

Toxic chuckles at her and leaps away aims for the safe house, but his attack is cut off by Ladybug catching his leg with her yo-yo slamming him to the ground. “Not quite Rena”

“Aw come on...”

 

Queen Bee lands loudly in front of the cave, she cries out when her sore ankle makes contact with the earth. Bee growls remembering her stupid ankle, and uses her wings to hover her way over to the mouth of the cave. 

“That’s far enough your highness” a cold voice booms from beside her. Silver feathers enter her field of vision and she only misses getting hit by a hair. Bee creates some space between her and this new figure; she summons her honey dipper and prepares for another attack.

The figure steps out of the shadows and Bee bites her lip, he was covered head to toe in silver armour with darker tones around his neck and chest. His face was hidden behind a helmet with steel feathers at the back. His eyes opened to glare at her, and they glowed from within the helmet with lavender light. 

“And who are you, Shiny armour?” Bee snaps twirling her honey dipper and gets into a fighting stance. 

“Such disrespect, but I will allow it to pass this once” the figure purrs allowing the uncovered part of his face to smile, he crosses and raises his arms above his head. “I am the Black Prince the first of the Corrupt”. The armour on his arms pops out wings made of sharp feathers, Bee tries her best to appear unimpressed. 

“I don’t have time for you; I have to check on…” Queen trails off peering into the cave and realizes her red headed friend was nowhere to be seen. Lancelot was back in human form, collapsed on the floor. “What have you done with Nathaniel?” she accuses and flips the dipper around to point what was normally a blunt end at the Prince only now it contained a sharp black stinger. 

“He is fine, I moved him to a more…suitable place” the Black Prince states dropping his arms and stalking towards her. Bee charges him aiming to strike that dumb grin from his face, with incredible speed he grabs her waist mid-flight and tosses her into the trees. 

The Prince jumps into the air and slams down on Bee grinding her face into the ground below. Bee gags when water enters her mouth and comes up with a gasp when his weight leaves her. The Prince comes down with a splash and begins to circle her. They stood in a giant round puddle which almost made it to his ankles, there was no plant life in the puddle, like a watery devils ground. 

“I have been curious how…I do against miraculous wielders so kind of you to offer yourself”  
Bee gets to her feet using her dipper to steady herself, barring her teeth she leaps into the air and prepares to slam him with the dipper end.

“Bring it!”

The wings cross and block her attack with a loud clang, nearly trapping her dipper between them. Bee grunts taking to the air again and starts hammering away at them. With each strike the Prince is forced back a step, he finally catches the dipper within his wings and spins to rip it out of her hands.  
Bee now without a weapon isn’t fast enough to dodge the powerful kick he sends at her gut knocking her to the ground once more. She spots her dipper lying in the water and makes a beeline for it, her path interrupted by a flash of silver feathers cutting into her back. Bee collapses to the ground again sliding across the water like a stone. She whimpers pulling a feather out and seeing the blood on its tip; she looks back at him and sees her wings tattered and useless from the assault. And he was charging her again. 

Switching to the defensive she blocks or ducks the attacks he swings at her, sliding her way over to her weapon.  
Her hand grasps the handle when a loud explosion rocks the ground, the Black Prince steps back to regain his balance. Bee gasps at the large mushroom cloud coming from where she was a few minutes before. 

She turns back to her opponent and swings her dipper while he was still off balance, her attack sending him a few feet back. She tries to steady her breathing for a moment; she had to end this fast and see if Ladybug was alright. 

The Prince bursts into smoke and reforms in front of her so quickly how she was able to block with her dipper was incredible. 

“So it was you taking those kids” Bee states pushing her weapon against his. 

A chuckle leaves his lips, “I will not deny princess” he kicks up some of the water into her face and pushes her back. Before she can react he grabs one of her hands and spins her up against his chest, trapping her with his winged arms. “I did my part in the plan, but now I have more fatal orders to follow” he whispers in her ear.

Bee swallows her fear, “some prince you are, following another’s orders” she hisses tightening her grip on her dipper and slowly turns it in a half circle. 

“I could say the same to you princess bee, following the orders of an insect” he hisses back bringing his wings closer to her throat.

Bee turns her head to face him, a shiver going through her body staring into the purple colours. “Ladybug is a hero anyone would rightfully follow-“she snakes her hand out and slams her fist into his lips forcing him to drop the wings containing her. 

“-And that’s Queen Bee to you” Bee adds thrusting her stingers end at his face, the sharp tips slides though the metal and she turns it to the side ripping half of the helmet off. 

The Prince cries out in surprise and brings a wing to her head, Bee ducks only enough for her head to be missed. 

A small splash makes her open her eyes and she sees her miraculous comb lying in the water, a panicked noise exits her throat as her transformation slowly faded away.  
The prince covers his open face with his hand, he pauses when a strange light appears on the water. He looks away from the girl covering her face and sees the moon had appeared from behind the clouds. His vision blurs suddenly and he knows he can’t finish the job just yet; he lets out a frustrated growl that gets her attention. 

“We’ll meet again princess” the Prince promises flapping his free arm to blast her with cold water, when she recovers the Black Prince is gone. 

Chloe coughs some of the water out and crawls over to grab her miraculous, freezing in place when her mother’s face peers up at her. 

“Chloe, are you okay?” Pollen asks shaking the water out of her fur, her eyes open in alarm when Chloe doesn’t move.  
Pollen waves her little nubs in front of Chloe’s face “Hey Earth to Chloe”. Still no response, Pollen puffs her cheeks out “alright you asked for it” she flies up and positions her tiny stinger. 

Chloe yelps from the pain in her shoulder and flips her head up to glare at her kwami, but the look is weaker than normal. It wasn’t her mother staring back at her; it was just her reflection. She brought a hand to her head and felt the cut made from the Prince’s wing, her lovely golden mane in tatters in the puddle. What remained on her head almost made it to her shoulders, a pretty even cut for a wild swing.  
“The comb can still go in, come on Chloe we need to check on the others” Pollen ordered softly, flying in front of her holder. 

“…Right, let’s go” Chloe says at last, slipping the comb best she could on her head and transforming. “The miraculous cure will fix it, the miraculous cure will fix it” she chants to herself as she took off into the air thanks to her wings now in one piece.

 

How the hell did he wind up here? Nathaniel wondered to himself dragging his hand across the wooden walls. He was in a cabin of some kind, but the place was dark and cold. His hand bumps against a doorknob; he hesitates for a second then pushes it open. 

He’s greeted by a sitting room packed full of clothing, blankets and junk. The walls covered in papers with crude sketches on them, and a figure scribbling away on a piece of paper on the coffee table. The figure looks up at him and Nath can’t hide his gasp quickly enough, even in the darkened room he could see the figure had his face. But the clothes were different, and his hair was up in an unnatural way. Nathaniel’s eyes widen, it was the Evilistrator. 

“Nathaniel I was wondering when you would show up, have a seat” the figure uses Nathaniel’s voice as well and gestures to the couch opposite him. Nath bites his lip but goes to sit on the couch without a word, questions burning the back of his tongue.

“Now you’re probably wondering what’s going on here, I’ll start by saying you’re totally safe here no reason to be nervous” the copy starts shifting his legs to sit criss cross on his couch. He throws out his arms to gesture around the room “this place is like your safe space, and I-“he gives a cheeky grin and leans on one arm. His pinky finger covers his lips “-I am you, or I’m part of you at least” he reaches over to his drawing on the table and flaps it several times, the drawing leaps off the page and flutters around the room. The paper butterfly lands on Nathaniel’s shoulder, a strange buzzing sound coming from the fake insect. Nath shoos it away blinking twice, dizzy all of a sudden. 

“…You’re not him, the Evilistrator I mean. You can’t be him.” Nath blurts out, his eyes shifting everywhere in the room but at the person in front of him. He forces himself to look at him and squeaks back into the cushion behind him, the “Evilistrator” now leaned towards him with a dangerous look.

“What makes you say that?” he asks his voice light and cheerful but his body looked ready to pounce.  
Nath gives a nervous giggle “the Evilistrator couldn’t draw in the dark” he states pointing to the pencil still in the others hand. 

The creature looks to his hand and bursts out laughing, a deep and powerful laugh that makes Nath shrink more into his seat. “Oh man I totally overlooked that, you really are a peacock” he throws his head back to laugh some more.  
He sighs and drags a hand through his hair “guess I don’t need this then” he adds matter of factly and the disguise melts away. The hair drops limp and lifelessly against his head, and the clothes become a pair of black slacks and white tank top. But Nathaniel doesn’t pay that any attention; it was the eyes that captivated him. They were a mix of dark purple and lavender, and they glowed in the darkened room. “Ah that’s much better, no offense but man is that costume tight” purple-eyes blurts stretching his arms above his head, 

“Alright down to business I suppose”  
The copy’s eyes seem to flash brighter for a second and Nath winces from a headache starting to form. “Nathaniel I need your help, and I can help you in return” he starts leaning back but keeping his eyes on Nath “You see where I come from things like joy or happiness just doesn’t exist” the copy’s face drops in a scowl “Hell it’s pretty miserable for my friends and I, but there’s a way to save us, to get us away from that dying world into this one”. His voice starts low but by the end it’s chirpy and excited. The copy bounces in his seat his eyes flashing with each little hop. Nathaniel’s head pounds so hard he has to close his eyes and hold his head in his hands, jumping in alarm when he feels a weight by his hip. 

Nath opens his eyes and yelps at the copy leaning on one knee on his side, trapping him to the couch with his arms. The copy takes one of his hands and pulls Nathaniel’s head up to meet his gaze “Nath…can I call you Nath? I need your help my friend” the other starts his voice dropping to a purr. Nathaniel tries to say something but his voice gets stuck in his throat; all that comes out is a strangled gasp. 

The copy smiles at him “all you have to do is let me use your eyes, it’s really easy. Just say yes” it purrs moving some of the bangs out of Nathaniel’s face. The copy stares into the boy’s eyes; humming softly as the others muscles start to relax. 

It was so hard to think, Nathaniel’s mind struggles to pay attention to his surroundings. The creature’s eyes filled his vision, making it impossible to look at anything else. Unknown to Nath the copy had started to fade slightly, his body becoming smoke like as he narrowed the distance between him and his victim.

“Say yes” the creature ordered in a whisper that echoed in the boy’s foggy mind, its eyes flashed again and Nathaniel’s eyes start to turn the same colour as the creature.  
“You’re all mine” it purrs placing a hand on Nathaniel’s throat, aiming to take control of the nerves. 

Nathaniel can’t fight his body completely putty to the creature. He can feel his mouth open ready to say the word when something pulls at him, something on his chest clawing its way out. 

Eight legs burst out from under his shirt and spit a white string in the creatures face, covering its eyes and their light. The creature falls back trying to get the goo off and trips over the coffee table, the loud sound breaking the spell Nath was under. 

Nath leaps from the couch and darts to the door he came from, covering his ears to block out the cries and hisses coming from the creature behind him.  
“Nath come back” the creature yells at him, but Nathaniel throws open the door and starts to run down the hallway. 

Purple eye turns his attention to the spider, her front legs lifted up in challenge. “I was wondering when I’d find you again” he hisses getting to his feet and stomping down on her.  
She misses the foot by a hair and crouches down hiding her face in her front legs. “Please sir, I didn’t know it was you” she cries voice cracking in fear.  
“I can ride your poison to any victim you bite, you should have known I’d take the opportunity” Purple eyes hisses snatching her off the ground and slamming her onto the floor. “I’ll give you a proper punishment later” he promises heading to the door.

Nathaniel slows down and leans against the wall to catch his breath, it felt like he had been running for several minutes yet the hallway kept going. His hand brushes against the wood, the smooth wall had a singular bump on it. Curious he bends down to feel the bump again, it was a long bump that had no place on the wall. Unless…

He pushes against the bump and a click is heard, the wall slides down to reveal a secret room, Nath lets out a small victory laugh and enters. Inside the brightly lit room a giant table stands holding up multiple glass orbs, he picks up one and gasps as the orb lights up. Inside the orb was an image of a blue brooch, yet there was something on it that didn’t belong. 

“You shouldn’t be here” 

Nath yelps in surprise and drops the orb; it hits the floor and shatters. Suddenly his vision is swarmed with a memory, finding the brooch in the snow, getting hypnotized by Hawk moth, being commanded to forget, and meeting Duusu. He grips the table to stable himself, and purple eyes grabs him from behind. 

“Shit, you weren’t supposed to do that” purple eyes growled trying to drag the boy away, Nath throws himself back and makes the demon crash against the wall. He gets out of the demon’s grip and runs to the other side of the table.

Nath picks up another orb and sees an akuma with a microphone inside, another stolen memory. Purple eyes glares at him from the opposite side of the table, an angry expression on the face he stole. 

Purple eyes stares at him like a predator, then he smirks and grabs an orb. This one had an image of a feathered hero but the eyes were red pits.  
“This is where we first met” the demon purrs tightening his grip to allow some of it to escape. Nath flinches as patches of the memory enter his mind; he was in a forest fighting a dark Paon. Then the copy got the upper hand and sent him falling down a tunnel.

“I really thought I was in trouble there, I mean Duusu taught you to use soul strike just like that” the copy snaps his fingers, the sound cracking several orbs but he doesn’t take notice. “And then…” the copy starts giggling hysterically “And then you missed” he smashes the orb in his hands.

Nath can see himself drawing the arrow and hitting the akuma at the top of the tunnel, not giving a second thought to the purple smoke surrounding the bottom.  
“You hit the akuma” the copy starts loudly clapping his hands laughing “so I got to stick around in this little head of yours, learning everything about you” the orbs crack a little more.

“And being completely honest I like you Nathaniel, you’re strong, smart, a heck of a fighter and-“ he flicks his hair “-I look good wearing your face” 

Nath backs up as the demon walks around the table stalking towards him; his body cowers when the demon grabs his arm. 

“My old vessel is broken Nathaniel, I need a hero to help me save my family” the demon’s eyes flash again, but Nath looks away and closes his eyes.  
“Please, it will only be for a little while, and I’ll give you your memories back” the demon pleaded his voice gaining a buzzing background noise; he brings a hand up to grab Nathaniel’s face and turn it towards him. 

“…No” Nath spits out cracking the orb in his hands, the akuma attack and defeat rushing though his head. The memory useful to block out the strange noise, but it was gone too soon.  
“If I get Duusu back for you will you consider?” The demon whispers in his ear, grinning when Nathaniel’s arms drop to his sides and he sways slightly. Hawk moth’s akuma had done a good job weakening his minds defense's, he almost had him.

“I SAID NO!” Nath screams grabbing the demon by the shoulders and shoving him onto the table, the rest of the orbs shatter under his weight. Nath lets out a scream as every lost memory pounds into him at the same time. 

The demon snarls from the trick. The glass crunching underneath him and he launches himself at the boy, Nath recovers from the headache long enough to catch him midway and kick him off to the side. “So this is my mind huh?” Nath asks rhetorically, a small smile appearing on his face.

“Don’t get peacocky brat, I still have control” the demon snaps his fists shaking in rage, “and it’s time for you to Wake up”.

“Nath wake up” Chat cries shaking the unconscious red head, Nath groans and opens his eyes making the cat hero stop. Nathaniel sits up and leans against a rocky wall, blinking his vision clear. He could see they were in some kind of cave high up in the mountain, and Chat was staring excitedly at him. 

“Hey Nath how’s your head?” Chat asks quickly putting his hand on Nath’s shoulder to steady him; they were too close to the edge for comfort. Chat doesn’t wait for Nath to answer “Oh and look what I got” he pulls out the peacock miraculous from his back. “You might not remember what this means to you but-“

“The peacock miraculous” Nath interrupts and snatches it from Chat’s paws. The brooch lights up so brightly that the boys have to cover their eyes, when it dies down Duusu is floating in front of them. 

“Look I’m sorry for doing that but I…” she trails off opening her eyes, “Nath, my little Nathaniel” she cries throwing her tiny body into his arms. “Thank goodness you’re okay I was so worried” she sobs tears freely falling from her face. 

Duusu then spots Chat smiling warmly at them scratching behind his head sheepishly, “I’m sorry; I must be the worst kwami ever” she says wiping some tears from her face.  
“It’s okay Duusu, it all worked out” Nathaniel says attaching the brooch to his shirt. “Right sparkle boy?” he adds with a mischievous look, Chat laughs in a combination of relief and embarrassment. 

“Guess you remember now huh?” Chat says leaning back, “want me to leave you two alone for a bit?” he adds unable to hide the smile on his face. 

“I think we will have to catch up later” Nath points out the smoke rising into the sky, He turns to Duusu who nods in agreement. “Duusu feathers out”.

“That was claw-some” Chat blurts out when the light show cools down, Paon Bleu smirks at him.

“You haven’t seen nothing yet” Paon promises standing up and summoning his fans to his hands. With his back to the exit and arms extended in a T pose he lets himself fall down, Chat peers out just in time to see Paon shoot off the mountains steep side and into the trees.

Damn he had missed this, the wind racing past his face, the scenery zipping by in a blur, and the powerful feeling it gave him. Paon jumps from tree to tree not slowing down even when the smoke reached and burned his eyes. In less than a minute he finds what he was looking for, the pond was normally dried up this time of year, but the rain had filled it up nicely. With a flap of the fans he shifts his speed to run in a circle, the water then gets pulled by the wind trailing behind him. Once satisfied with the amount he takes off into the air again, using the wave of water to smother the flames as he flew past. 

Bee is almost at the spa when a large tree branch breaks off and nearly hits her; she coughs from the smoke and comes down for a rough landing. Stupid forest fire, stupid smoke, and stupid bee weakness to smoke, Bee wipes the soot off her face with a frustrated huff. She’s just about to walk the rest of the way when she hears a whoosh of wind coming her way; quickly she pulls out her dipper ready to strike. 

Bee turns around and Paon crashes into her full speed, sending them into a log roll holding onto the other’s shoulders until they came to a stop by the building.  
“Paon…is that really you?” Queen Bee mumbles dizzy from the spin.

“Yeah, I’m here” He replies breathlessly, his body stiffens noticing the position they were in. Now he was the one on top, panicked he hurries to his feet and offers her a hand up. She lets out a chuckle and accepts his hand, using her free hand to cover her hair in shame when his eyes widen.

“Your hair…” 

“Ladybug can fix it, come on she needs us” Bee says quickly and rushes towards the battle and away from the hair subject.

“If the akuma object wasn’t his necklace then what was it?” Ladybug cries dodging the akuma’s poison attacks. A beeping from her miraculous causes a slight panic from the red hero, this had to end now.

“I don’t know, nothing is standing out to me” Rena says hearing a beeping of her own and swallowing a growl of annoyance.  
Toxic laughs at them and sticks his tongue out to taunt them, only for a batch of honey to fall on his head. This trapped everything but his head, Toxic yelped pathetically as the honey hardened. 

“Queenie, bout time you came back here” Rena calls “but how are we going to get the akumantized object now?”

Queen Bee doesn’t say anything; instead she smirks and points to the sky. The other girls look up in time to see Paon shoot from the trees and come slamming down on the akuma with such force the honey shatters. Toxic howled in pain as Paon gave another hard kick to his gut, Ladybug rushes over to stop him but halts when Toxic coughs up a blackened cigar. 

“You always did have a nasty habit of swallowing the ash” Paon mutters quietly and turns to Ladybug, she readies her yo-yo and he snaps the filthy thing in two. The escaping butterfly captured in the usual fashion.

Ladybug picks up her lucky charm and tosses it into the air with a cry of “Miraculous Ladybug” and thousands of tiny beetles begin their job repairing the damage.  
Bee can’t help but worry when the beetles don’t immediately fly to her, but the feeling is soon passed when they do and her ponytail flops down on her back soft as ever. She lets out a large breath she didn’t realize she was holding. 

Chat slides down a tree mirroring a cat in a cartoon, throwing an arm around Paon with a knowing smirk. “Great to have you back bird-boy”

Ladybug has a tiny cute smile on her face until her earrings give their final warning, “Yes, welcome back Paon Bleu…” her smile turns sheepish and she gives a quick goodbye. The red hero leaps into the trees while Rena disappears into the nearest building with a wave of her own. 

“Guess we’ll have a family reunion later, you’re gonna love Carapace” Chat slaps Paon on the back playfully and leaps off into the trees, leaving Bee and Paon alone aside from Ralph scrambling away not knowing what happened and not wanting to stick around to find out.

“So uh…how have you been Queen Bee?” Paon starts running a hand along his hair, Bee smirks again and narrows the distance between them. 

“Much better now that you’re back…OH SHIT!” she jumps back surprising Paon “I forgot about Nathaniel, I still haven’t found him. Got to go, bye” she turns and leaps into the sky.

“Wait I’m right…” Paon shuts his mouth by slamming his hand over his mouth, thankfully Bee hadn’t heard him.

He takes out his fans to fly after her but beeping stops him in his tracks, guess Duusu wasn’t at full power right now. 

“I got it, see you later Paon” Chat calls from his hiding place, ignoring the stare Paon sent his way for being a peeping tom. Another beep from his chest prevents him from saying anything about it, with a flap of fans he heads to the nearest hiding spot.

Duusu lands with a plop in his hands, the obviously overworked kwami in desperate need of a rest. Nath is just about to carry her inside when something else shoots out from his chest. He gasps when the demon spider rolls out and splats against the wall. 

“You, what-how…” he stammers unable to speak properly.

“…I got away….blood head you’re in-HEY” she’s cut off by a glass jar scooping her up and silencing her voice. Oma gives a sigh of relief, wiping her brow while Nathaniel throws Duusu into his jacket hoping she hadn’t seen. 

“I felt that demon and host slip away last second, thank goodness it’s just a wee one” Oma states to no one in particular. She rattles the bottle watching as the spider has a fit tapping at the glass “I’ll give you a proper exorcism in the morning” she adds then turns to Nathaniel. “Are you putting away the cleaning supplies? Such a good boy, I’ll be off to bed now, I’ll leave the door open for you” she says with a chirp and heads toward her house. She throws her free arm up in the air to hug Lancelot jogging up to her, his face concerned but relived all at the same time.

Nath considers running after them to rescue the spider but something stops him, and the arachnid is soon forgot about. 

 

“I missed your first kiss? Aw” Duusu’s whine carries to the opposite side of the door; Adrien knocks twice waiting for the “come in” before entering.

Adrien walks in finding Nath sitting on a couch in a small living room, Duusu comes out from her hiding spot under one of the cushions and gives him a wave. He takes a seat opposite them and holds out a bag, “I brought snacks”.

“Oh good I’m starving” Duusu claims accepting the peanut butter muffin Adrien pulls out and nearly eating it in one bite.

“You’ve had like two sandwiches already” Nath says taking a bite out of the chocolate one Adrien handed him. 

“That women never fed me, I’ve been starved and deserve this” Duusu says once her mouth was clear.

Plagg pops out from Adrien’s shirt and waits “patiently” for his holder to give him his cheese, Nath smirks at the exchange. “It’s going to take a while to get used to seeing more than one kwami in the room” he admits picking at his treat absentmindedly.

“Yeah no doubt, I always pictured the big reveal as being much more spectacular” Adrien agrees taking a candy bar for himself “like Ladybug and I confess our undying love under the stars, or fireworks would work too and then we’d sneak away to finally kiss without the mask”.

Duusu sighs lovingly while Plagg pretends to gag, “you humans and your love, can’t we all just be satisfied with cheese?”

“Don’t be such a poor sport Plagg, love is wonderful. Which reminds me-“her face grows a massive smirk and Plagg drops his cheese in alarm. He moves faster than Adrien had ever seen him go to no avail; Duusu tackles him down with ease.

“No, no, no…argh” try as he might Plagg was forced to endure Duusu’s hug, their holders giggling at his apparent distress. 

“We still don’t know who the rest of the team is under the masks; you and Ladybug can still have your moment” Nathaniel points out.

“True, very true” Adrien sighs and glances at the clock “it’s pretty late, we should get some sleep. First train to Achu is early in the morning”. He picks up his lazy kwami and gives a small wave as he heads to the door. 

 

Hours later Chloe opens a door careful not to make it squeak, she tip toes into a living room aiming for the kitchen just to the side of it. Her feet stop when she sees a presence on the couch, Nathaniel was asleep with a large blanket covering him. His pillow had been moved from under his head to in his arms and his mop of hair hung over the arm of the couch. Chloe bit her lip watching his even breaths make the blanket rise and fall, her eyes darting to his hair. It looked so soft, maybe if she was gentle. Chloe softly runs her fingertips though his hair, not aiming for any more than that. But Nath shuffles in his sleep and bumps his head into her hand, Chloe swallows a squeal. Crap he was cute.

A muffled laugh makes Chloe jump and turn in its direction. Alya stands in the darkened kitchen holding a cup of hot chocolate in her hands; she gives a small wave not trying to hide the mischievous smile that played on her face.

“Can’t sleep?” Alya asks once Chloe had sat down on the counter with a hot chocolate of her own, Alya joins her kicking up her giant purple slippers as she does so.

Chloe takes a long sip from her drink “I just have a lot on my mind right now” she says at last. Which was true to be fair, her encounter with the black prince was certainly nightmare inducing. 

“Yeah don’t blame ya girl, having boy troubles?” Alya purrs adding a few more marshmallows to her cup.

“You could say that…but never mind that, how come your lady blog hasn’t updated? I got signal in this building” Chloe quickly changes the subject, admittedly wondering what was taking the young blogger so long. Surly she had some awesome shots from today’s battle.

“Uh about that, my phone was left in the locker so I couldn’t get any footage…I’m still pretty bummed about it” Alya admits looking glumly at the drink in her hand, in reality she had just plain forgotten to create an Alya illusion. Bummed was an understatement.

Chloe bites back a laugh, “and it was such a cool battle too, I mean La Paon getting defeated, Paon Bleu returning, not to mention…” she nearly spills Oma’s little secret but a sting from Pollen keeps her mouth shut. When had that little bug gotten into the back of her pajama shirt?

“Not to mention what?” Alya asks one brow rising, Chloe takes another long sip thinking of an answer.

“Not to mention…what happened when Nath and I got taken to a safe zone by Oma’s helper guy” Chloe says at last, “When we got there-“she paused for dramatic effect “-someone attacked us”.

Alya brought out her phone and fiddled with it for half a second “Spill” is all she has to say for Chloe to begin the makeshift interview. They keep their voices low to avoid waking the boy in the other room.

"This is really big, and Queen Bee managed to defeat this ''black prince''?" Alya asks fingers typing furiously at the keypad, amazing how fast she could do that without ever breaking eye contact with the girl next to her.

"Not exactly...he got away, but I'm sure their next encounter will have that creep begging for mercy, nobody disrespects the Queen and gets away with it" Chloe says with such confidence it hid the sudden pit in her stomach.  
Alya wraps up the interview and presses the update button for her blog, "Never thought I'd say this, but thank you Chloe" the blonde girl flashes a weak smile and places her now empty mug into the sink. With a yawn she gives a quiet "goodnight" and starts to head back to her room.

"Chloe...for real now, what's with you and Nath?" Chloe freezes in her tracks and curses softly, slowly turning back to Alya.

"Okay look-" she peeps out of the kitchen to check to see if Nathaniel was still asleep in the other room, "-I may have had...some feelings for him but that's over and done with. I'm going to take my chances with-"

"Paon Bleu?" It's more of a statement that makes Chloe's face burn, Alya the self proclaimed queen of shipping didn't let much slip past.

Alya gives a big sigh before continuing "listen Chloe, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don't think that will happen" she places her cup down with a gentle clang. "Your interest in him happened after your sixteenth birthday right? When he showed up in that alternate costume and danced with you" 

Chloe nodded, unsure where this was going.

"Girl he was just doing his job, I mean no offense but you've caused more akuma attacks then anyone in Paris. Your party could have been a breeding ground of them, so probably Ladybug ordered him to watch over you so you didn't get in trouble" 

"That can't be true, sure I may have accidentally caused a few attacks in the past but I've caused none this year" Chloe covers her ears as if that would block the seed of doubt taking root. 

"Chloe come on now, has he visited you since your birthday?"

"No"

"Has he called you or left little notes telling you he's interested?"

"...No"

"Chloe-" Alya put her hand on the other girls shoulder "-I don't want you to chase after someone and get hurt" Chloe grits her teeth determined not to look weak in front of Alya.

"...Look, I'm not going to tell you who to pursue, but I think you have a better chance with Nathaniel then you think" she gives an awkward smile "those looks he gives you when you're not looking are hinting at something" she adds giving a small wink. 

Chloe looks up at her eyes burning with curiosity, and Alya leaves it at that waving goodnight. Chloe is left alone in the kitchen for a moment processing what she just went though. She heads back to her room she normally rented when she came to this particular spa, not allowing a peep to exit her lips until she's collapsed over the bed. Pollen flies  
out and lands on her head wordlessly, letting her holder babble and whine until she fell asleep.

Hawk moth let out a large breath shivering from the cold wind that bit at his neck. Yet another failure at gaining the miraculous, and he had lost a few allies to boot. But he couldn't bring himself to care, the few dozen giant moths rested quietly around him. At least with her gone he could get back to his original plans, stick to Paris and gain the miraculous on familiar ground (because that was working so well). Although after that dramatic showing in front of his house, going back might get him stuck in questioning with the police. He paces trying to think of a solution when he spots black smoke curling at his feet.  
He jumps back in alarm as a figure rises from the smoke, her face covered by a large white mask. 

"Not getting rid of me that easy"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs are my source of inspiration, the devil within by digital daggers and swan lake (metal cover) helped me work though some of this chapter. 
> 
> Alya is kind of tricky to write, I did my best with her and I hope she came out alright


	17. There's sand everywhere!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter then rewrote it because I was missing out on a pun.

Chapter 17-There’s sand everywhere  
There was a thick fog surrounding him that much he knew. Nathaniel walked aimlessly taking notice to the way his feet slid on the uneven ground and there was the sound of water nearby, was he on a beach? Something comes into his sights in the distance, he squints as he approaches. The figure appeared to be a woman wearing a brown cloak with the hood hiding her face. This had to be another dream. Wouldn’t be the first time he had a lucid dream, and Nath was getting sick of these nightmares. So when the figure stood and turned to him he prepared for a scare. 

The figure suddenly grabs his wrist and snarls at him, its face a cracked human skull. Red spotlights burned from within the skull, and it gave another hiss when Nath didn’t flinch away. The creature relaxes its grip but doesn’t let go, with a rattle of bones it points with its free hand to its head. Than shakes its head slowly, the hand moves down to its waist where several long feathers were tied. The creature repeats the action several times until Nath nods. It drops his wrist and the fog swallows it up.

“Help her…” 

Nathaniel opens his eyes to see Duusu snuggled up against his chest, guess she was being truthful when she said she didn’t want to leave him alone. Her being so close is what prevents the annoyed sigh from escaping his throat, what the heck kind of dream was that?  
Duusu yawns and stretches in her sleep; Nathaniel bites a cry down when she presses against the fabric. Carefully he moves her away and peeks under his shirt, the black scar had lost its purple markings but was still sore to the touch. Wait…what else had purple markings? Nath jumps up so quickly he gets dizzy, and nearly wakes up the bird in his hands.  
Oma was going to exorcize her today, sure she was a demon but he couldn’t just let her…let her…

His trail of thought empties staring at his reflection on the TV screen.

She didn’t matter anymore; she had failed to protect him at the Agreste house and had used him to get out of France’s boarders. He would not interfere with her punishment. She was no longer important. He should forget about her…

Duusu sneezes so hard she wakes herself and Nath up, “Good morning Nath” she chirps giggling at herself. 

“Morning Duusu” Nath replies with a chuckle of his own, he sits back down and a small box bumps against his leg. Duusu and Nath share a confused look at the box’s sudden appearance.

 

“Come on Chloe, time to get up” Pollen calls over the alarm clock the next morning, Chloe in turn groans from under the blankets but doesn’t move.

“Leave me alone Pollen, I’m just going to mope today” Chloe mumbles poking her head out from the cover; Pollen crosses her arms and huffs. 

“Look if you’re still upset over Paon why don’t you just ask him next time you see him?” Pollen offers turning the clock off to allow silence to take the room once more.

Chloe takes a deep breath inhaling the lavender honey scented sheets, the smell relaxing her somewhat. “But what if it’s true? Paon really has no interest in regular non-superhero me” she grabs one of the pillows and holds it tightly. “I don’t know if I can handle the answer”, she adds then waits for Pollen to reply. After waiting several minutes she throws off the cover to find her kwami quietly eating some of her honeycomb treats “why aren’t you convincing me to go?”

“I can’t make every decision for you, if you’re going to be a coward and hide under those blankets all day then so be it. I’m sure your team will be able to defeat the akuma without you, so I’ll take this day to relax” Pollen answers taking a nail file and running it across her little nubs, what exactly she was filing was a mystery. 

Chloe hurls her body up and places her feet on the cool marble floor, the pain in her ankle had calmed down to a dull thud. She stomps over to the bathroom much easier then she could yesterday. Pollen doesn’t hide her smirk until Chloe comes back out smelling of coconut sunscreen “there’s no way I’m letting you have a relaxing day while I need to punch something, let’s go” she orders swinging open the door and nearly squishing the little gift box in front of it with her foot.

Pollen bonks into Chloe’s back when she stops suddenly, her complaint died in her throat when Chloe turned around fiddling with the bow keeping the box shut. Pollen picks up the card attached and reads it aloud “Sorry for not giving you this sooner but travel is tricky these days-“

“-what you faced yesterday is only the beginning-“Wayzz continues while Nino shakes the box gently by his ear, his being found in his backpack.

“-For the next few weeks you may have to go all across Europe and Asia-“Trixx quickly reads eager to find out what was in the box, Alya sat patiently with her box in her lap. Hers was underneath her phone charger, hidden away in the bathroom. 

“-So I have included in here tickets that will allow you to travel by train free of charge-“ Duusu pauses when Nath opens the box and pulls out a card coloured gold with a train symbol on it.

“-And a wonderful friend of mine has agreed to provide you with a cream that will heal the wounds made by demotic forces much faster than on its own- “ Adrien puts the card in his back pocket and takes out a jar filled with a fluffy gray cream. Plagg being too lazy to read was chowing down on some cheddar he had found somewhere.

“-Best of luck, Master Fu” Tikki looks up from the paper to see Marionette trying but failing to get the lid of the jar off with her wrist, the miraculous magic had healed it somewhat. But it was still sore to use especially when opening jars. 

“It never fails to surprise me how Master Fu gets these things done” Tikki adds setting the letter down and assisting her holder in opening the jar. They both gag loudly at the smell of burned rubber that came from the cream. 

“Let’s hope it works” Marionette mutters trying not to breathe though her nose, she takes some of the cream and places it over her cut. She winces from the cold on exposed flesh but gasps when it gets warmer, the cream absorbs into her skin and the cut heals in front of her eyes. It stops once the cut was no deeper than a paper cut, which would be sore but she could move her wrist more freely. 

“PS…” an old woman’s voice makes Tikki throw herself into Marionette’s purse nearly knocking the jar out of her hands. “I will use what I can to keep suspicion off of you while you travel” Oma continues coming into view from the other side of the door. “As far as anyone is concerned, you are at my Spa having a wonderful time” she gives Marionette a toothy grin, which Marionette mimics awkwardly. 

“Uh, thank you Mme Blutmond” Marionette says at last, putting the jar in her purse which Tikki quietly objects to the sudden lack of space. 

“Now go on, your train leaves in an hour” Oma points her walking stick to the door and Marionette throws Alya a goodbye then runs out. Not taking any notice to Oma remaining in the room waiting for the kit to come out of the bathroom. 

 

Train stations were loud, that was something that never changed for Nathaniel. At least this time he had some company currently seated in his medium sized bag, working away with some pillow fluff and bits of scrap paper to rebuild her nest. 

“Nathaniel shit, wait up” a voice yells from a few feet behind him. Nath turns to see Ralph running up to him, the taller man gasps for breath once he catches up. Years of smoking thick cigars taking their toll on his lungs and stamina. 

“Nath we need to talk…” Ralph says in between breaths and Nath anxiously turns his head back to the station. “Please it will just take a second” Ralph pleads.  
Nathaniel sighs and looks at his by birth father, his expression unreadable. 

“Look, I know I’ve been an awful parent to you, I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. There are hundreds of things I should have done differently” he paused studying the younger boy’s face. “But it’s not too late to be better, from here on out I’m going to be the best parent I can be”, his voice cracks from a sob hidden in his throat. “I guess what I’m trying to say is…you can call me dad again”

Ralph smiles awkwardly for a second then it drops to the floor; Nathaniel glared at him hands clenching his bag so hard his knuckles were white. “You seriously think that’s all it’s going to take?” Nath hisses his voice just above the rumble of the station. “Hundreds of things, try thousands, millions” he continues voice rising in volume. “You want the tittle of dad again? EARN IT!” 

Nathaniel turns and runs away not wanting to hear anything else Ralph had to say, Ralph held his arm hand out wishing to call him to come back. But for once in his life his pie hole remained shut.

Nath races towards his train muttering a curse when he sees it already out of the station, so thinking quickly he grabs a railing and uses the speed to swing onto the stairs to the second floor. The floor was more of a lookout but had part under construction where a large window was going to be placed. Nath skids underneath a table with a large tablecloth and with a blue flash Paon Bleu shoots out from the other side. The one other guy on this level nearly chokes on his sandwich when he turns to see the feathered hero blast by him and launch off the ground out of the building. 

 

Adrien whistles quietly from underneath the large black hoodie he had found in the Spa’s lost and found, he probably looked like a numskull wearing it while going to a much hotter country but it was all he had to disguise himself. Suddenly a loud thunk comes from the roof of the train, causing a few people to stumble to regain their balance. Adrien puts his face against the window and spots the unmistakable blue and red from Paon, lying on his gut with the wind in his face. The metal was sure to get too hot once they got near Achu, Adrien feels bad for the hero until his face is squished against the cool glass from others trying to get a look. Actually he might just join him. 

With a flash Chat Noir pops out of the bathroom at the other end of the train, slipping out one of the trains emergency windows in the empty part of the train at the back. With relative ease he crawls atop the train and tilts his head to the side when he doesn’t spot Paon right away. 

His eye catches a blue feather falling behind the train’s caboose and follows after him, sliding down the metal careful not to get scooped up by the wind. Paon was leaning on the railing watching the station get smaller. He didn’t even notice the feline hero until Chat cleared his throat.

“Oh hey chat…” Paon mumbled voice getting lost in the trains loud clattering, Chat only understood what he said from reading the others lips.

Chat waved and watched the scenery for a while, “so what’s got your feathers all ruffled?” he asks gently poking the other in the arm. 

Paon mutters again but this time Chat can’t make out what he says, so Chat ushers them into the empty caboose cabin. Paon sighs once the door had been shut and the noise went down a bit, the caboose still rattled loudly but the wind had been silenced. “Chat it’s nothing, I’m fine” he states crossing his arms not looking at the other. 

“Come on Paon you can talk to me” Chat starts “would it be easier to talk without the masks?” he offers double checking that they were alone without any onlookers around. 

“Look it’s just my dad alright? He thinks he can just waltz in and I’ll just forgive him for all his crap” Paon snaps stamping his way over to a makeshift seat made of discarded boxes in a corner. 

Chat doesn’t say anything while Paon retells his last conversation with his father; he finds a seat on the opposite side of Paon. Paon hugs his knees once he’s finished.

“I enjoyed hitting him…when he was akumantized” Paon admits looking over to Chat “I wanted to keep going even after the object was found…does that make me a bad person?”

“You’re a good person Nath, you could have kept hitting him but you didn’t” Chat answers offering a small smile. “I know it’s not easy seeing your father akumantized”

“How’d you handle your father getting akumantized?” Paon asks suddenly and Chat scratches the back of his neck. 

“At the time I felt guilty for causing it…but after a while I felt pretty angry” Chat starts pausing to sigh “I mean he threw a temper tantrum over a stupid book, destroyed his office, including the family drawing I had done a long time ago as if it was nothing to him. Is our family just nothing to him? Am I just nothing to him?” Chat’s voice grows a venom gland so he stops himself there. 

“Our fathers are dicks” Paon says to break the silence that had fallen, Chat laughs softly. 

“Not going to deny that, but now we have to save the kingdom of Achu from a sandy situation” Chat stands up and offers his hand to Paon. The feathered hero takes it with a small smirk playing on his face.

 

“Argh it’s too hot” a voice complains to a dark skinned boy from its container full of ice, the boy throws on a light but elegant shirt and grins widely. 

“It’s very hot here all the time, not much I can do about it” the boy says with a laugh, his smile faltering when a knock is heard at the door. 

“Prince Ali you have visitors waiting for you down in the throne room, shall I tell them to come back later?” his chaperone asked from behind the door.

“Who are they? I don’t recall visitors being part of today’s schedule” Ali blurts automatically sliding a pocket watch into his shirt pocket.

“Ladybug and her team, they-“she’s cut off by the door nearly swinging in her face as Prince Ali races down to the throne room. She chuckles softly and enters the bathroom to dump out the cup of water left in there, as well as wipe up the water he must have spilled in his haste to greet Paris’s hero’s. 

 

“Ladybug, it is fantastic to see you again, and Chat Noir you’re looking…well”

“Yeah the black suit is hot your majesty” Chat says wiping his brow for like the tenth time since they’d gotten off the train. Rena fixed her ponytail to try and keep her traitorous hair from heating her neck too much; Bee flapped her wings gently to make a small breeze around her. Paon was using one of his fans for its created purpose, to try and cool the overheated hero down. 

And Carapace learns his suit could give him a turtle’s cold blooded structure, which he was very thankful for right now. 

Prince Ali smiles sheepishly at them “Yes it is very hot today, even for here. So I am sure you sure you want to get down to business right away” he freezes eyes fixed on Paon.

“Le Paon! Guards” Prince Ali cries eyes widened in fear, Ladybug stood in front of Paon with her arms out, Chat blocked the guards coming for the redhead from behind. 

“Le Paon is no more; we defeated her in Germany just yesterday” Ladybug starts eyeing each guard daring them to make a move “and this is our peacock, Paon Bleu”. 

“Oh my apologies” Ali says quickly shooing the guards away; slowly the massive men lower their weapons and return to their posts. He walks the group over to a more private room. 

This room had a large map of the Achu kingdom on its wall, and Prince Ali points to the south side. “This is where the akuma has been confined, thanks to Raja” his voice has a tone of pride to it.

“Who is Raja?” Ladybug is the first to ask her head slightly tilted to the side. 

“Raja is the Kingdom of Achu’s resident hero, he appeared a few days ago a little after the akuma” Prince Ali says as calmly and professional as he can but the spark of excitement doesn’t go unnoticed. 

Suddenly the earth shakes for a few seconds, everyone scrambles to stay on foot. When it stopped Ali coughed to get their attention “we believe the akuma is causing these quakes, hurry and stop her”. Ladybug nods and gestures for her team to head out. Once alone in the room Ali smiles “Raja will meet you there”.

 

“You think he’s another kwami user?” Paon calls as the group leaps from building to building, the Achu kingdom didn’t nearly have as tall a buildings as Paris so Ladybug’s yo-yo was unneeded to cross. 

“I don’t think so, Master Fu’s box only had room for seven miraculous’s” Ladybug answers swiping open her yo-yo which now had the map of Achu on it, a red blinker indicated they were going in the right direction. 

“This must be the place” Chat says landing with the others glancing at the deserted buildings, sand had nearly ripped some apart and others lay in dust piles. 

“Where’s that stupid akuma? My makeup is starting to run” Bee complains after finding some wiped off on her glove.

“Maybe in the sandstorm” Carapace suggests pointing to the storm whipping its way towards them, before even Ladybug could act he leaps in front of the group and holds up the shield. The team has to grab hold of either Carapace or someone by him when the wind kicks up trying to send them flying. 

From the wind and the sand a figure forms, she wore a large brown robe that whipped around with the sand. A red jewel glowed from her forehead almost hidden by the cloth. Her hijab flowed far past her floating body and seemed to be generating the storm by twirling in circles. Finally a green stash stood out amongst the brown around her waist. 

“I the sand witch have been granted the ability to shoo away all those who bother me and you are on my property” the witch screeches throwing her hands up to the sky and creating a ball of sand above her. The hero’s yelp and leap out of the way, Rena grabbing Carapace by the back of his suit and yanking him with her. Rena lands several feet away and freezes when the witch disappears into sand and reforms in front of her, she brings a wrinkled hand to the fox hero’s head and gives it a gentle boop. Than the akuma disappears into the sky and prepares another sand ball, leaving the two no time to discuss what just happened. 

“Oh please tell me it isn’t the hijab” Chat cries shaking some sand out of his hair, coughing as more sand covers the air. 

“Take cover” Ladybug orders as the witch sends another mound of sand their way. Carapace waves Bee and Paon into an abandoned building, Ladybug just makes it in when the wave of sand swallows up the doors and windows. 

Bee flaps her wings to allow some light to come to the now darkened room, “we’re trapped!” she cries zipping to one of the windows and trying to dig though the sand. 

“Okay don’t panic, I’ll just…” Ladybug trails off her ears picking up a rumble coming towards them. A part of the wall starts to shake and everyone gets ready to face whatever comes out. The wall shakes than crumbles apart, revealing a boy around their age coughing from the dust. 

“Oh you must be the team miraculous I’ve been hearing about” the boy says in perfect French, he throws them a large grin and stands up. Ladybug and Chat glance at one another in confusion, unsure to drop their guard or not. The boy was dressed in a skin tight orange and black costume, a mask highlighted his warm eyes but protected his identity. He also had a pair of rounded tiger ears on his head and a stripped scarf tied around his waist like a tail. “The names Raja, it’s nice to meet you” Raja sticks his hand out which Ladybug hesitates but proceeds to shake politely.

“You speak French a lot better than I thought you would” Bee comments and Rena smacks the back of Bee’s head. “Ouch, you were thinking it too” she accuses scowling at Rena. 

“Oh that’s because…uh I decided to ask the Prince to teach me for when you showed up” his smile turns cockish “I’m a quick learner”.

“Okay Raja-“Chat starts peeking into the tunnel Raja had come from “-you’re getting us out of here right?” 

“Right, yes, come with me” Raja stammered with a nervous laugh. One by one each hero gets into the tunnel with Raja at the front using his claws to dig effortlessly though the sand. Bee cries out in delight when sunlight comes into view, almost knocking Ladybug over in her haste to get out of the tunnel. Once everyone had dusted off, Ladybug looks over to the section they were just in. the sandstorm had thickened and looked impossible to see though.

“Any guess on what the akumantized object is?” Ladybug asks throwing one hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. 

“Her forehead has a jewel of some sort that would be my guess” Raja offers. 

Paon went stiff for a moment; the skeleton in his dream had red eyes and was dressed similarly. Minus the being bones part; did that mean…  
“Paon you with us” Chat’s voice brings Paon back to reality; Paon feels his face burn realizing everyone was looking at him questionably. 

“I uh…this’ll sound weird but…” Paon doesn’t get the chance to finish as Raja takes Ladybug by the hand and leaps off into the storm, whooping in excitement. 

“You got the googles slow poke so be my eyes” Rena commands grabbing Carapace and leaping after them. 

“Would you stop pulling me around” Carapace cries before his voice is swallowed up by the storm.

“Guess it’ll have to wait Paon, come on” Chat calls disappearing after them, Bee flying beside him. Paon now alone bites his lip then charges in.

“Raja what’s the plan here?” Ladybug coughs out unable to see past the tiger in front of her, Raja stops running and pushes her behind a building. He puts a finger to his lips when her mouth opened to question him. 

The sand witch floats by their position, her eyes glowing red against the storm. Ladybug prepares her yo-yo to trap her when another earthquake strikes. This one much stronger and knocks the two heroes’ off balance. Ladybug feels the ground underneath her start to sweep away, she looks up to see the witch gathering sand into another large ball.

“Can you point me in the direction of the purr-amids?” Chat cries then leaps away from the sand ball that flew at him. Quickly he runs towards the witch using the buildings to avoid her attacks, Ladybug wraps the witch in her yo-yos string. She gulps but remains strong when the akuma’s eyes stare at her, pulling Sand witch to the ground. 

Raja eager to help flexes his hand to release the claws on his glove; Chat grabs the fabric on the witches head and carefully holds it still. Raja uses the clawed hand to grab at the jewel. The metal softly closes around the gem. 

“Guys don’t!”

A cold wind sends Chat and Raja against the wall so hard it shatters and they collapse into the sand. The witch screams and takes off into the sky, dragging ladybug with her.  
“What the hell Paon?” Chat cries shaking the sand out of his hair, Paon lands in front of them holding his hands in front of him. 

“I’m trying to tell you that-“

“You’re still working with Hawk moth” Raja growls cutting the bird off, Paon doesn’t move in time and the tiger pins him to a sturdy wall behind them. Raja’s claws dangerously close to his throat, “I should have known not to trust you” Raja adds flashing his fanged teeth.

“Hold up Tiger boy” Queen Bee appears and grabs Raja’s arm, “make it fast Paon” she orders her eyes narrowing from suspicion. 

“Okay, look I think I had a vision about this akuma” Paon starts sweat dripping down his face from the combined heat and cold claws. “It’s not the jewel, it’s her belt”

“And why should I believe you?” Raja hisses 

“The longer we stand here is a minute longer Ladybug is fighting the akuma on her own” Chat puts his hand on Raja’s shoulder “there’s no point fighting amongst ourselves. 

Raja growls softly but lowers his claw and steps away from Paon, his ears flatten and the tail lowers to the ground “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me” he admits shaking his head slightly. 

“The jewel might have done something, let’s see if you’re right Paon” Chat says taking off in a sprint and smacking straight into a wall he hadn’t seen in the increasing sand storm  
“um can someone see though this storm?” he adds his voice muffled from the wind. 

 

“Rena for the love of Pete could you slow down?” Carapace cries as the two lands on a rooftop, even with his googles he can’t make much out. 

“Then tell me where we’re going here, I lost ladybug” Rena fires back having to yell to be heard over the storm, the sand got in her mouth and she was forced to cough. 

“I don’t know where Ladybug is, if you hadn’t grabbed me like you always do maybe I could have a better idea where anyone is” he yelled yanking his hand out of hers. 

Rena gasps then growls slightly “I’m just trying to help our slowest member get into the action quicker, why don’t you check over there and I’ll-”

“Let me guess, go create an Alya illusion?” Carapace fires taking a step towards her, his grip on his shield tightened when the wind picked up. 

Rena stammers eyes on the ground for a moment then she meets his eyes with equal fire “I create those illusions so the real Alya can stay out of akuma battles where it’s safe, because it’s a hero’s first duty to protect people”. Rena stamps her foot “Unlike some so-called heroes that can’t get a grandma off the battle field”

“Oh and showing a fifteen year old close up to all those battles broadcasting live is a good lesson to show the people how safe it is to be close to an akuma attack” Carapace snaps sarcastically.

“The people deserve to know about these attacks and that SOME of their hero’s do their job” Rena grabs Carapace by his collar

“Maybe SOME hero’s would do better if they didn’t waste their powers on illusions of junior reporters” Carapace rips her hand away and stumbles back; he brings his shield up to defend against her flute. 

Carapace throws her back and she sweeps his feet out using her leg, neither take notice to the roof starting to crack under the abuse. “AT LEAST I’m NOT A SLOWPOKE” Rena shouts smacking her flute down on his head. The roof gives out and both turtle and fox tumble down into the building, by reflex Carapace brings his shield up to protect both of them from the rocks falling down on them. 

The two get to their feet ready to fight when a laugh makes them look up, peering down into the hole was the sand witch with her forehead gem glowing brightly. “Tear each other apart you fools” she cries then shrieks with laughter again. Carapace rubs his head and glances over at Rena, gasping when her eyes narrow and a red light come out of them.

“As you wish” Rena says robotically and charges at Carapace, the turtle hero leaps out of the way. He somersaults on the ground and brings the shield up just in time before Rena’s boot makes contact with his head. 

“Rena snap out of it” he cries throwing her on her butt and standing up, “I don’t want to fight you” he adds only to feel a cold wind behind him. 

The sand witch grins at him and places her finger on his forehead before he could react, Carapace’s eyes roll to the back of his head and he slumps forward. When his eyes snap open they had the same red tint that glowed in the darkened room. 

“I want to destroy you!” Carapace shouts turning away from the akuma and tackling Rena, both heroes’ crash down into the sand. From there Carapace takes a swing at her head using the shield while Rena smashes his knee caps with her leg. The witch satisfied with her work fades into sand and takes off with the wind. 

 

Queen Bee sighs as she paces in the shelter the boys had found, with the storm worsening the group had decided to stay there and try to attract the akuma there. Chat slid in through the window and shook the sand off. 

“This isn’t working, I was just shouting for her for hours and I got nothing” the cat hero says slumping in his seat. He opened his mouth to say something else but another earthquake stops him, both cat heroes’ get on all fours as the wind increases at the door. 

“Ladybug” Bee cries in delight and zips over to the red hero, grabbing her in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay” she adds dropping her hands; it wasn’t unusual for Ladybug not to hug Bee back since she was a little pushy at times but something felt off.

Ladybug doesn’t say anything as she grabs her teammate and throws her into a confused Chat, Raja stops like a deer caught in headlights as she turns to him and swings her yo-yo at his head. Paon uses his enhanced speed to knock her to her back, her red eyes snap open and she spins on the floor to knock him down. The witch forms in the sand outside the shelter and grins at them, “bring me the cat” she commands.

Ladybug stomps down on Paon’s hand as he tries to get up and uses her weapon to trap Chat and pulls them both out into the storm. Bee scrambles to her feet and charges after them, the other boys recovering and following close behind. 

Outside the storm burned their eyes but cleared enough to see the akuma and Ladybug in the distance. Chat was on his knees tied up in the yo-yos screen, with the witch bringing her finger towards his head. Chat yelps and practices some limbo to get some distance away from her. 

Raja leaps into the air and his claws pop out, he dives into the ground and starts digging so quickly he disappears into a tunnel within seconds. The witch snarls trying to find his location she doesn’t notice Paon taking to the air until he’s slamming down on her chest. 

“Sorry Ladybug” Bee cries and swings her dipper towards the red hero only for it to stop before it hit the target. Confused Bee looks to her side to find Rena’s flute trapping her dipper, Rena spins and kicks Bee a good distance away. Queen Bee gets to her feet and takes into the air; Rena flies after her and creates a fly swatter illusion that gives Bee a hard slap to the side. “Oh that was uncalled for fox” she snaps flying straight down and slapping Rena across the face.

“Oh great it got Rena too” Paon makes a grab for the akuma’s belt only for a flying shield to slam into his face. The shield bounces off a rock and back into Carapace’s hands. Paon stumbles off the witch only for Carapace to trap him with his grapple hook and pull him to the ground. With everyone distracted Chat rolls himself to his feet and frees himself from the yo-yo in the process. 

“Alright bugaboo, let’s take down this akuma” Chat gets her attention and back flips away from her attacks, landing atop Sand witch’s head. The akuma tries to tell her to stop but it comes too late and she gets a face full of yo-yo.

Paon rolls to his side to dodge the shield coming for his head “our first outing together and you’re already trying to kill me” he comments rolling the other way to avoid the next attack. 

“Get his miracu-AAHHHH” Sand witch screams when Raja pops out of the sand underneath her with enough speed that he plucks the green belt from her waist and still gets some good height. In midair he rips the fabric and releases the akuma butterfly within, coming down for a crash landing on both Chat and Ladybug. 

“What happened?” Ladybug asks rubbing her head; Chat pops his head out from the sand and sighs.

“Great to have you back LB, I was getting sick of this litterbox”

“Honey Trap” Bee cries catching the akuma before it could get too far away, some of the extra honey lands on Raja almost making his relived smile go away. The sand storm slows and disappears altogether revealing the tattered remains of the south side.

“That was so cool” Raja cheers wiping the liquid gold off his face. Rena blinks several times finding herself in the air with a rather sore cheek, she drops down to the ground followed shortly by Bee holding the butterfly in the honey cube. She throws Rena a “sorry not sorry” kind of grin and hands the akuma to Ladybug.

Carapace releases Paon from the grappling hook and helps him to his feet “Sorry dude” he says going to scratch behind his neck and bonking his head against the shield. 

Paon mimics Carapace’s sheepish grin “no problem…” he trails off as the earth starts to shake again. Suddenly a large creature bursts from the sand with an ear-piercing roar; it was a brown shark about the size of double decker bus. Its massive fins glide though the sand effortlessly and its eyes were bloodshot yellow. 

Ladybug pockets the akuma…somewhere and picks up the confused victim, a young woman who gasped seeing Paris’s most popular superhero. “Let’s get out of here” she orders launching across the sand using a rock to sling shot her out of the shark’s path. Her team (plus Raja) quickly get out of the shark’s way, Paon uses his fans and Chat gets a hand by an honestly terrified Bee. The shark opens its mouth and attempts to swallow Raja unable to fly or use the sand to get away. Raja cowers and waits for the teeth only to hear a clang behind him. Carapace’s shield had been thrown and jammed between the Shark’s teeth, the shark winces from the pain of biting down on metal. This gives Rena the opportunity to fly low and scoop him out of harm’s way. 

“I don’t recall sand shark’s being in the Achu kingdom” Chat comments and Bee just rolls her eyes. They reach a part of the south side with the most buildings still standing, the shark shoots it’s massive body into the air and crashes down creating a tidal wave of sand. Carapace snags his shield from the air with the help of his grappling hook and uses the momentum to start surfing atop the shield. 

“Cowabunga” Carapace shouts almost forgetting the danger her was in as he rides with the wave. 

“Oh shoot” Paon stops his flight and dives down towards the buildings about to be swallowed by the sand. 

“Paon” Bee and Chat both call after him, a few seconds pass with nothing but sand. Then Paon bursts out from the sand wave carrying a small child on his back, both cough out some sand as the feathered hero races away from the wave.

Bee’s miraculous beep in warning and the wave finally slows enough for her to put Chat down. Rena drops Raja beside them, and Paon slides to a stop placing the kid down. “I was wrong to doubt you Paon, you risked your life for one of my people” Raja says smiling at him then turning to the child. The tiger switches to his native tongue to address the child and then turns back to the team, “he’s alright. He went back in to find his toy and got trapped by the storm”.

The kid was holding a Chat Noir action figure and smiling sheepishly at the group, Chat smirks and runs a hand though his hair. “I can’t blame him, that’s a pretty cool toy” he says in the language the kid spoke, the kid’s face broke into a huge excited grin. 

Ladybug landed in front of them eyes tired but focused “Bee take the kid over to those hills over there, there’s a small building to your left where you can recharge” she points to said hills in the distance.

“Great plan as always Ladybug” Bee chirps and offers her hand to the child. He hesitates but takes her hand and the two were off in the air with the child squealing all the way to the hills. Ladybug doesn’t have time to wonder if that was delight or not since the shark created another earthquake and its fin rose from the sand.

“Lucky Charm”

A black and red harpoon lands in her hands “okay that kind of makes sense” she admits “ Boys try to get him to change direction, Rena get me close to him” she orders spotting the shark was now heading towards a more populated part of town. 

“On it” Rena grabs Ladybug from behind and takes off into the air, Raja digs into the ground once more and Chat charges uses the baton to gain some speed. 

“Hey Paon, mind giving me a hand” Carapace asks holding up the grappling hook and shield. Paon looks at him questionably and smirks.

“Hold on tight”

Carapace doesn’t have to be told twice as they zip across the desert, the grappling hook tied around Paon’s waist and dragging the turtle behind him using the shield once more to surf. The shark raised its head to show the world its sharp teeth, only to roar in pain as Chat extends his baton into its eye. “I don’t see an akumantized object Ladybug” he cries. Chat climbs atop the shark and holds on to the fin for dear life, Raja pops out of the sand and claws into the shark’s other eye. Blinded the shark rears up out of the sand and creates another sand wave. 

Paon yelps in fear and takes off into the sky to avoid the wave, forgetting the rope around his waist and taking Carapace into the air as well. 

“There’s something on his belly, we need this fish to turn over” Ladybug calls down; Chat gives her a thumbs up and tries to pounce on the shark’s nose. Not expecting the shark to dive underground leaving the two feline’s rolling across the desert.

“If only we had some water, then shell shock would be more effective” Carapace says slowly drifting down clinging to Paon as they glided down, Paon clearly struggling with the added weight.

“Water you say” Raja says excitedly shaking some sand out of his hair. A huge grin on his face, “I think I might just be able to help with that”.

The shark resurfaces and opens its mouth once more, this time instead of running away Raja charges towards the land fish. Once he’s close enough Raja leaps into the shark’s open mouth, ignoring the cries from the other hero’s behind him.

“Jaws of life” 

The shark winces then its mouth is forced open by two powerful streams of water coming out of each of Raja’s hands. The water slowly drags the rest of the shark’s body to the surface as it fought to free itself from the stream. Carapace sprints towards the chaos spinning his shield, Raja waits until he’s ready then shifts the streams in front of him propelling him away from the shark and soaking it in the process. 

“Shell shock” 

Lightning shot out from the shield and Carapace chucks it at the shark, having to cover his ears from the roar it let out. Its skeleton becoming visible for a moment and it flops over, exposing a red patch of skin. Ladybug takes aim and fires the harpoon at the patch, the harpoon sinks in and Ladybug pulls it off to reveal…

A black hole, the hole began to suck in the sand close to it and Rena had to pull back to avoid the same fate. “That’s not good” she cries grabbing hold of the remains of a building. 

Raja pounces on top of Carapace and uses his claws to dig into the stone underneath them as the sand was scooped up around them. Chat yelps as his claws weren’t built for digging into rock and his frantic clawing doesn’t save him from getting pulled towards the black hole. 

“CHAT” Ladybug cries wrapping her yo-yo around Rena and letting go, she almost caught her kitty’s hand but he slips away before she had a secure grasp. 

Paon leans back as the ground is sucked away under his feet; frantically he looks around trying to find anything that could help. His eyes falling to his waist where three feathers stood out from the others, they weren’t as long as his back feathers and they were brown. Without thinking he plucks one off and the tip turned blue and sharp, like an arrow.

Something clicks and Paon shoots into the air not fighting the pull of the black hole, “Paon help, this sucks” Chat cries still capable of making bad jokes. Paon grabs the cat hero and positions him towards Ladybug.

“Royal strike”

Chat screams as the cold wind blasts him towards his lady, she catches him and holds him so tightly had the black hole not been there he’d be over the moon. “Where’s Paon?” Rena yells tightening her grip on the building, cursing as the stone begins to crack. 

 

So he got sucked into a black hole, it wasn’t nearly as painful as he thought it would be but still rather uncomfortable. Paon opens his eyes to find a blue bubble surrounding him and his body was glowing softly in the otherwise black space. He finds he could use his two fans to move in the bubble and flew deeper into the blackness, after a minute he spots something else glowing in the distance. 

Upon closer inspection he finds a small girl floating in the fetal position, her body trapped in a white bubble. Paon brings his hands up just like how he had done months earlier and sure enough the bow and arrow form in his hands. 

A sound like a hissing wind breaks the silence, Paon gasps when a black smoke appears and wraps itself around the girl’s bubble. Red eyes on top of the smoke monster dare him to fire, and Paon nearly does. But he stops himself and points the arrow back at the girl and fires, the smoke monster screeches as the bubble pops and encases the room in a white light.  
Paon shields his eyes until the light dies down enough for him to see, the girl now awake looks at him confused then sees the monster swirling above them. Terrified she flies into Paon and holds onto him tight, he pulls out another feather and is stunned when she lights up and is absorbed into the arrow. Going with instinct he fires the white arrow into the smoke monster aiming for its chest, the monsters screams deafening as it fades from existence. Paon has to shield his eyes again. 

When his eyes open he’s face down in the sand, carefully he sits up and gets tackled by a newly recharged Queen Bee. 

“Don’t you dare scare me like that again” she sobbed nearly cutting off his air supply, the others jogged over to them relived as well.

“How’d you know that would work? There was nothing for a second then a giant peacock appeared and grabbed the shark into the sky” Chat asks helping pull Bee off him and getting the feathered hero to his feet. 

“I didn’t” Paon admits with a nervous laugh, he scratches the back of his neck and the bow bumps him in the head. 

“That’s new” Rena states referring to the weapon, Paon checks his waist and sure enough a third feather was still there. He plucks the feather and it transforms into an arrow, earning some gasps from his team.

“Shoot it into the sky Paon” Ladybug says with a playful smirk, a white butterfly escaping into the sky behind her. “Let’s see how they work together” she adds holding up her lucky charm and waiting for Paon to get into position.

On the count of three Paon shoots the arrow and Ladybug throws the charm into the sky. Ladybugs appear and start to repair the damage done to the buildings, leaving them as they were before the attacks. A blue flash lights up the sky and to the group it appeared to be snow, but once it got closer it was revealed to be tiny blue feathers falling from the sky. 

Chat breaths out a pleased sigh as one of the feathers touches his skin, reliving it of the sand and sun burns. The blue feathers have no effect on buildings or property but seemed to be of great assistance to the living. Raja picks up the small girl that was trying to catch a feather before it hit the ground; in his arms she catches one and giggles as the feather melts into her skin. 

“That wasn’t an akuma at all was it?” Raja’s smile drops for the moment to address the issue, the hero’s exchange looks of equal confusion. 

“Maybe Tikki will know” Ladybug says after a moment of silence.

“Is that your Kwami?” Raja asks immediately, and then smiles awkwardly when everyone aside from the kid gawks at him. “That’s what they’re called right? Mine doesn’t give information out easily, he’d much rather complain about the heat and eat oranges” he rambles. 

“No you’re right it’s just…” Ladybug trails off so Chat takes over.

“We didn’t think there was more than seven” Chat throws his arm around Raja and spots what must have been his miraculous on his right hand, a watch with three black stripes on it. As if on cue another stripe beeps and disappears from the watch. “So Raja you want to join the team?” Chat offers spinning his baton “I mean I’ll still be the number one feline around here but I don’t mind a newbie”.

“Thank you…but I belong in Achu, I need to protect my people from these monsters” Raja says putting a free fist against his chest. The girl sitting on his arm cheers, and he smiles gently at her. “Forgive me Chat Noir…everyone but I have to decline”.

“No worries Raja” Ladybug says with a gentle smile of her own, her earrings cry in warning.

“I’m sure you’ll want to report to his royal highness that his kingdom is safe, I hope we can work together again”. Raja gives a polite bow and jumps onto the nearest building, using his claws to effortlessly hold onto the wall and leap away into the desert heat. 

“Everyone meet up at the palace once you’ve recharged” Ladybug orders swinging off and out of sight. 

 

Paon doesn’t make it to the palace before his miraculous gives out, thankfully he was over an ally way and wasn’t that high up. Still his jacket couldn’t protect his hands from cutting on the ground below, Duusu plops on his head “You okay Nathaniel?”

“Yep, I’m good” Nath coughs out shaking his hands from the friction burns, “you’re not going to believe what happened after the akuma was defeated”. He hands her a slightly squished sandwich and begins to explain. 

“…you’re right that definitely wasn’t an akuma-“Duusu says once Nath had finished, she paces midair taking a bite out of her beloved peanut butter sandwich. “-oh no” she cries at last zipping to her holder’s face so quickly she smacks into him. “Back in the hidden villain lair, I taught Nathalie how to use soul strike…she must have misused it like Hawk moth with Nooroo”.

Nathaniel rubs his forehead from the impact “so what happened to them?” he asks feeling awful dizzy all of a sudden.

“Soul strike done correctly cleans a soul of demons; if I’m guessing correctly then she must be introducing demons into them.” Duusu grabbed the sides of her face and took several deep breaths.” Oh if only I knew how many she’s hit…wait did she use it properly with you?” 

“I don’t know…” Nath trails off from a headache pounding in his skull, he must have hit the ground harder then he thought. “Yes the arrow was blue, come on the others are waiting” he answers quickly and sends her back into the miraculous before she could argue. With a flash Nathaniel disappears and Paon stands in his place once more, he launches into the air and continues his way to the royal palace. 

 

“It is a great relief to hear that the akuma has been dealt with, thank you team miraculous” Prince Ali says smiling warmly at the group “Although it’s a shame I have nothing to offer you as thanks”.

“This is our job your highness, we’re just glad everyone is safe” Ladybug says bowing her head quickly, “with Hawk moth on the run it’s a relief that Raja will be protecting your kingdom” she adds glancing around the throne room. “Where is he anyway?”

“I’m sure he’s around” Prince Ali says automatically, “Thank you again” and with that the hero’s respectively take their leave. They leave the Prince to his work and gather in an empty room most likely used for meetings due to the large table in it. 

“I think that shark thing was like the Black Prince” Queen Bee starts her voice becoming sarcastic at the Prince’s name. “He called himself the first of the corrupt, because ooh spooky” she adds mockingly, waving her hands like one would when telling a ghost story. Everyone exchanges glances but none can argue with her.

“If we come across another we’ll have to see if my cure works on it, thank you for covering for me Paon” Ladybug says flipping her yo-yos computer screen up. “Nothing new on the lady blog yet” she mutters not noticing the defeated look that passed over Rena’s face. 

“Give it some time; I personally would like to head back to Germany. It’s way too hot here for this fine feline” Chat claims trying to throw his arm around Ladybug but she sidesteps him. 

“Where ever you guys go just be ready for travel quickly, Hawk moth, an akuma or one of these corrupt could show up anywhere” and with that Ladybug gives her usual “bug out” and leaps out the window. Wasn’t like she was going to admit how badly she wanted to head back to that spa and maybe get a chance to see Adrien in a swimsuit again. Or go piggy back riding in the mountains, or maybe finally confess without stuttering like a love-stuck fool…yeah like that was ever going to happen. 

 

“Hey Rena can I talk with you for a second” Carapace asks catching the fox hero’s hand before she left out of the window, Rena looks at him uneasy but steps down. “I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier, you’re right the people do deserve to know about these attacks…and it’s great that you try to keep Alya from getting caught up in them”.

“I really should be the one apologizing, I know more than anyone how frustrating it is when no one trusts you as a hero” Rena starts tugging at her ponytail nervously. “It took weeks until Ladybug would even think to call me part of the team, thinking back calling myself Volpina at first was kind of a bone-headed idea”. Both of them chuckle for a moment “look Carapace, I’m sorry for saying you don’t do your job you did amazing today” Rena says at last. 

“Even if I’m a little slow” Carapace can’t help but tease.

“Even if you’re a little slow” Rena echo’s bopping her finger on his nose then shooting out the window to who knows where. Carapace smirks watching her until she disappeared from view, and then heading off using the hook to get to the nearest rooftop down below.

“Oh Alya is going to eat this up” Queen Bee states covering her mouth to somewhat hide the cheeky grin that covered her face. A light bulb goes off and she quickly turns around “Hey Paon I was meaning to ask…” she trails off finding no one else in the room. She huffs in annoyance, now he was back to the batman routine? What a pain. 

 

“I don’t see the point to all of this, how are we supposed to gain their miraculous if we’re all over the continent” Hawk moth snaps from the abandoned observatory they were currently using as a base. 

“You were never one for patience Hawk moth, but this is vital for the plan” the other figure hisses looking out the building’s massive windows. Its face unreadable under the large white mask, Hawk moth growls and clicks his staff. The masked figure calls a large moth over to its hand “Awaken the archangel” she whispers to the insect. With that the moth squeezed out the window and disappeared into the setting sun.

“I suppose I shall be off to my next destination now” Hawk moth states calling down his transformation and flinching when the masked figure teleports in front of him. Nooroo zipped into his coat pocket and Gabe could feel the kwami tremble.

The figure’s features could be seen now in the faint light that the observatory offered, the mask it wore featureless other than the mouth and eye holes. It also wore a black cloak that hid her body from view, flowing in an invisible wind. Her eyes peered from behind the mask with lavender light, and she hovered in front of Gabriel instead of walking. “I can assist with that little Gabe, let’s travel with style” she chirps not giving the designer a chance to object. She scoops him up in the robe and vanishes in a puff of smoke. 

 

“There you are Ralph, did you get the peppermint like I asked?” Oma asks finishing up a paper at her desk, the spider beside her in the glass prison. Oma turns and taps the glass several times and smirks when the spider backs as far away from the glass as she could. 

“Yeah I got your stupid herb” Ralph states tossing the bag onto Oma’s lap, with a loud sigh he collapses onto the couch on the other side of the room. 

Oma’s smirk leaves her for a more concerned expression “I told you it wouldn’t go well” she says softly, carefully she gets off her chair and stumbles over to her son. “The first step is never easy” she adds placing a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“He says I need to earn it…I need a drink” Ralph states pulling a beer can from his bag, but before he can open it Oma puts her hand gently over it.

“Ralph you know I don’t allow drinking in my office” her voice sparks to a tease, “if you’re going to be staying with me I would appreciate you work on all your bad habits”.

Ralph groaned like a spoiled child “but mama” he whined but didn’t say anything more. As Lancelot walks in carrying Oma’s stick. 

“Now we can get started” Oma says bringing her attention back to the little demon on her desk.

“Wait, wait please I’m not the one you should worry about” the spider pleaded as Oma opened the jar and used a pair of kitchen tongs to lift her out. 

“You came out of him that looks like demon possession to me. Luckily the spell I cast all those years ago still holds strong” Oma states with a twinge of pride in her voice, if the spider could roll her eyes she would have. 

“Okay yes I was in his soul but it wasn’t by choice, the bird lady shot me to get to him and I got stuck while all hell broke loose” The spider says wiggling her legs trying to break free from the tongs “there’s someone else still in there”.

Oma drops her into a pentagram she had carved into her desk, “and who would that be?” Oma demands an answer taking a leaf of peppermint out and crumbling it over the demon.

The spider squeaks in pain as the herb burns her skin, peppermint was a pain even to demonic arachnids. “My boss-“she tries to spit out the name but nothing comes out she growls in frustration “he’s a higher up that’s going to use that blood head for who knows what”.

“Not very loyal are you” Oma says at last stopping her exorcism for the moment, much to the spider’s relief

“Never really was…please if you spare me I can help him” she pleads looking between the three much bigger humans in front of her. 

“Do you take me for a fool?” Oma’s tone becomes dangerous and the spider cowers in fear “I am the last standing member of the Blood moon pack, I know not to trust a demon’s word” Oma cries snatching her stick from Lancelot and stamping the stick on the ground. Her hair falls from its bun and regains its colour, the spider freezes in place instinctively. 

“Except you Lancelot, you’re a good boy” Oma adds flashing a smile at her familiar, Lancelot scratches behind his head and smiles shyly at her. 

“No, no I don’t I…shit” The spider rambles “my boss can’t fully get in without consent, I can travel non-stop without having to rest, Nathaniel knows me, and I can talk. Please don’t kill me please” 

“Fine then, but I’m not letting you leave” Oma says at last tapping her stick once more and her hair becomes white once more. “My grandson will be back by tonight to rest, I will care for him then” she claims wrapping her hair back into a bun and handing Lancelot her stick.

“He’s your grandson?” The spider squeaks eyes going wide “wait, so why were you easy to take down?” she blurts turning to Ralph. Ralph huffs but doesn’t say anything, the trio leave the spider there in the office. “Hey you’re just going to leave me here?” she cries trying to step out of the circle and nearly losing a leg in the process.

 

“Are you still sore about that?” Oma asks looking towards the road waiting for either the bus or taxi to show up with her grandson.

“I think I always will” Ralph admits pulling out his cigar and frowning when Lancelot plucks it from his hands. 

“I haven’t told him about it yet, but it won’t happen until he’s sixteen in human years. So I have plenty of time to prepare” Oma hums as she twirls a ring on her finger.

“Mama…he’s going to be sixteen in two weeks” Ralph states pretending to have his full interest on her then throws his hand back to grab his cigar back. He smirks and twirls it teasingly as Lancelot, who in turn smirks and holds up his lighter.

Oma pauses for a few seconds.

"Shit"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I added a made up kwami in this chapter, but I remember seeing somewhere that there were kwami based off the Chinese Zodiac so I wrote it with that in mind. This will probably be the only time Raja shows up so if you didn't like it you won't have to worry. And yes I did name him after the tiger in Arabian nights, couldn't for the life of me decide on anything else.  
> And now on top of Akuma's the hero's have to face the corrupt, cause why the heck not. Future chapters may have them face both or just one.  
> Poor Nath, you have no idea what I have planned for you.


	18. All heaven breaks loose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this got very wacky, but I had a blast writing it.

It was late in the evening when a lone nun walked into her church; she gazed at the magnificent building’s structure. Gothic ceiling makes her look towards the heavens, angels decorated the front surrounded by flowers. Normally when she came here for a lonely prayer she felt a sense of accomplishment but today there was a bad energy in the air. The silence unwelcome and made her feel small, like an animal was breathing down her neck. A flutter of wings makes her look up from her hands and find a giant moth crawling towards her, the nun gasps and stumbles away from her spot. It was time.

The nun tumbled down the steps trying to get away from the over sized insect, begging it to leave her alone. The moth ignores her and jumps onto her hand, the black spot that had appeared there a few weeks ago burning and absorbing the moth into it. The nun’s sob’s and whimpers die down and her eyes flash yellow, a horrible smile comes to her face and she stands up to rip the clothing off her head. 

“Sister Jane, what are you doing?” A fellow nun cries from behind her, crying out in horror as the older nun turned around and her body was engulfed in a golden light. The other nun fell to her back and cowered from the being in front of her. 

“There is no sister Jane anymore-“the nun claims as the statues around her crack and fall. “-I must clean this world of its sinners” she continues then lets out a horrible screech. The surrounding stain glass windows shatter, “I will purge this world into rot”. 

 

Nathaniel had been on the train back to Germany for about an hour when a hooded figure ran past him; the figure’s hand grabbed Nath from behind and dragged him into the bathroom. He throws his head back and smacks his head against his attackers jaw, the feeling of satisfaction didn’t last long however. 

“Ouch Nath I was helping you” Adrien whined holding his jaw, Plagg’s snickering echoing in the tiny room.

Nath turned around awkwardly since the bathroom wasn’t built for more than one tiny person. “Helping me with what?” he snaps placing his hand on the doorknob, only for Adrien to stop him.

“Nino is out there, Marionette too” Adrien breaths out, standing way too close for Nathaniel’s comfort levels. “If they see us here instead of at the spa there’s going to be questions” he adds trying to take a step back and stumbling over the toilet behind him.

“What are they doing here? Aren’t they supposed to be at the spa as well?” Duusu chimes in popping her head out of the bag. 

“Knowing Alya she probably went to Achu to get footage for her blog, Marionette and Nino must have joined her so she didn’t get hurt” Adrien guessed and Nathaniel rolled his eyes. Adrien’s phone beeped and he pulled it out automatically, “have you checked the lady blog lately?” 

“With what phone, last time I had one was when Nathalie…” he trails off when Adrien casts his eyes to the floor. 

“So it was her, Nathalie was Le Paon” Adrien says at last crossing his arms as if he’d been hit in the gut, the red head nods pushing some bangs out of his face. Adrien finds himself thinking back to the final battle, he could have sworn Le Paon disappeared half a second before the blast hit but maybe his eyes were just playing tricks on him.

“She’s not dead Adrien, I made sure of that” Duusu flies out of her nest and moves his chin up to look at her. A wave of relief comes and goes too quickly though the blonde modal, “we’re going to save her, I promised her” Duusu adds then backs away when Adrian inhales for a sneeze.

The sneeze never came but Adrien’s eyes still get teary “I’m going to help any way I can, sure Nathalie and I weren’t exactly buddies but she’s still like family”.

Duusu smiles proudly at Adrien, he had so much more from her than just her eyes. Her own eyes well up and she wipes them dry quickly before either holder saw. With a small smile Adrien opens up the lady blog and shows the two its most recent post. It was Alya doing an interview with the newest miraculous holder Raja, the tiger was being energetic but not giving away any info that would reveal his identity. A family of three appeared in the background and the two children raced over to Raja, the young girl forgot her manners and asked Raja a question while the interview was still going on. 

“Do you know what she’s saying?” Adrien asked raising a brow playfully. Nath squints to hear but shakes his head.

“She’s asking: who’s the pretty bird hero?” Adrien’s perks his voice up to parrot a little girl’s voice and Nath hides a laugh in his hands. In the video Raja gives her an answer and the girl lights up, her mother appears behind her smiling apologetically. “I think you got a fan there Nath” Adrien adds putting a hand on his hip proudly; Nath just smiles shyly then jumps as the train jerks slightly. 

“Could you have found a worse hiding spot? This could look seriously awkward if-“the red head is cut off by the train stopping suddenly. The force sends Nathaniel crashing into Adrien and both fall over the toilet. Then the train jerks forward breaking the mirror and sending water and toilet paper all over the place. Adrien forces his eyes open as the emergency lights flicker on, Nathaniel scrambling to untangle their limbs to stand up. 

“What was that about?” Adrien asks getting to his feet careful not to cut his hands on the glass, Nathaniel doesn’t say anything but opens the door enough to peek out.

“Uh…that’s not right” Nath says finally, he pushes the door fully open to reveal the train was now deserted. The windows broken and fog crept its way in. Plagg and Duusu fly out of their hiding spots once it’s confirmed no human was in sight. 

Nathaniel starts pulling on the emergency exit; Duusu flies over and tries her best to help. Adrien pushes on the other end of the door to finally get the bent metal to move. Outside the train was a thick fog, making it impossible to see. “Where is everyone?” 

“Another akuma so soon” Adrien wonders aloud then spots a figure making his way over to them slowly, it limps awkwardly and its feet make a loud slapping sound against the concrete. “Hey that guy is hurt” Adrien says poking Nath in the back to get his attention. 

The figure gets closer and lets out a loud groan, the boys shrink when his features come into view. Its eyes were the first giveaway that something wasn’t right. They were a sickly yellow and had no pupil within them. Its neck was bent at an odd angle and it limped towards them moaning. It reaches for Adrien with green rotted hands and the modal lets out a shriek, backing up so quickly he trips and lands on his butt. 

“Zombie” Adrien cries and Nath pulls him to his feet, more moaning is heard and several more walking corpses appear in the fog. The boys scream and run back into the train, “close the door. Close the door” Adrien cries while they force the door to close. It snaps shut just as a zombie sticks his hand in and with an audible pop the hand cracks off and land on the floor. 

“Did your vision mention this?” Adrien says in between heavy breaths, the red head shakes his head.

“I mean it could have there was fog… and bones” Nath trails off and squeaks in alarm when Duusu lands on his shoulder almost cracking his neck from looking over so quickly. 

“What do you mean vision? You’re having visions?” Duusu asks but yelps when the zombies start throwing themselves though the broken windows. 

“We’ll talk later, we need to transform” Nath says and Adrien nods quickly, Plagg moans something about cheese but is sucked into the ring without trouble. The zombies surround the boys then are blasted back by the green and blue lights. 

Chat Noir spins his baton with a confident smirk on his lips; Paon Bleu summons his fans and attacks the nearest zombie. The weapon slices though the rotten flesh better than he expected, the zombie topples to the floor with his head rolling off to the side. Neither boy has time to gag however as the rest of the zombies recovered from the light show and attack. Chat sidesteps the first zombie and swings his baton at the next one. Paon jumps up and lands on the shoulders of one zombie, kicks its head off. Then he uses the falling body to slice into the next one with a sharp kick to its head. 

Paon flaps the fans forward to release enough wind to send a few zombies back and allow Chat the space to spin the baton fast enough to finish off the last few corpses. “We have to get out of here” the cat calls spotting the trains exit on the roof, with the enhanced strength given by the suites he’s able to pop it open without too much trouble. Paon shoots up it than give the cat a hand up. 

“Now what” Paon asks able to see thousands of zombies making their way towards the crashed train, and more importantly them. Chat flips out the phone part of his baton and calls Ladybug, his fake ears drooping when her voicemail comes up.

“Ladybug, get yourself to…” he trails off scanning the area for a sign to indicate where they were. “Rome, there’s zombies in Rome” he says spotting the welcome sign in the distance. Chat clicks the phone to end the message and both tense up when a female’s scream breaks through the fog. 

“Come on” Paon orders gathering speed and shooting off the train, Chat follows behind spinning the baton in the air to hover over the mound of hungry zombies underneath them. 

They land on the side of a building and Paon kicks the window to make a small hole to unlock it on the other side. They slip in to find themselves in a large office building, their feet echoing loudly in the hallway. Paon slows down trying to hear the scream again and falls to the floor. He turns to see a zombie without legs holding onto his ankle, Paon screams and hits it with a closed fan. Chat practices some golf and smacks its head down the hall, “these guys are really dead-icated” the cat chirps watching the head roll and snarl at him.

The female scream makes both cat and bird cover their ears; Paon gets to his feet and narrows it to a nearby room. On the count of three they kick down the door and ready their weapons. The zombie inside was fatter than the others and its skin bubbled with black goo coming out of holes. Chat goes low and Paon goes high, the fat zombie’s legs snap off and Paon flies down to squish its head into the carpet. 

“Paon, Chat what took you so long?” the girl cries sobbing hard, she gets to her feet cradling her shoulder. 

“Queen Bee” Paon lunges forward to catch her before she falls on the rotting body below “what happened?”

“Well I was on the train heading back to the Blutmond spa’s because I really needed a message and a facial after all that sand. Then the train just stopped and everyone other than me became these gross zombies” she doesn’t hide her cries of pain as she tries to scrape off some of the black goo from her suit “I was doing fine until fat turd showed up”.

“Did you get bit?” Chat asks moving Bee’s arm away and gasping at the wound underneath, the black goo still attached worked away at her flesh deepening the wound. 

“I don’t wanna die” Bee sobbed into Paon’s chest; Paon instinctively held her but stopped when she grew tense. Bee snaps her head up eyes now completely yellow and roars at him, Paon yelps and pushes her back. 

“Ha zom-bee” Chat says with a dumb grin and Paon turns and intends to grab his arm but based off the yowl he grabbed the cat by the hairs on his head. 

“Now’s not the time” Paon cries letting go of Chat to allow him to start running beside him, the two don’t get far before Zom-bee bursts out of the room using her wings to gain on them. They come up to the end of the hallway where it splits into two other halls, a huge window let in what tiny sunlight shone through the fog. 

“Left or right” Chat asks sparing a glance behind them, going down on all fours for some added speed. 

“Neither, grab my tail err my back feathers” Paon orders and jumps towards the window. Chat doesn’t have time to question so he grabs hold of the magnificent back feathers on Paon’s costume. The window shatters and Paon turns around to flap the fans hard enough to send them away from the building and send Zom-bee a few meters back. 

The two boys glide down and land on the road covered by cars that had crashed into one another. Neither says a word listening for more zombies coming for them. 

“Chat, there you are” a female voice calls to them making them look behind them. Ladybug swung into view thankfully with her normal baby blue eyes. 

“Ladybug” Chat cried throwing his arms around her “Are you okay? Did any of the bite you?”

“No I’ve stayed out of their reach, have either of you seen the akuma doing this?” Ladybug returns Chat’s hug for a moment then pushes him back. 

“No but it got Bee “Paon answers “and it’s likely got the lady blogger’s boyfriend as well, he was on the train when everyone else vanished”. 

“Marionette too” Chat pipes in.

“I know” Ladybug stated quickly, her eyes shifting to the sky for a second recalling Nino’s sudden disappearance. Her eyes catch something red falling out of the sky, lots of them. 

“Guys look out” she cries pushing the boys to get them to run, meteors come crashing down around them sending hot pieces of metal around them. 

“Holy cats” Chat cries pointing to the sky, coming out of the fog was a giant six winged creature. It’s long serpent body swimming across the buildings, dropping the tiny meteors from its mouth. The creature spotted the brightly coloured hero’s amongst the gray and swirled around to charge towards them. 

Ladybug quickly swings to higher ground while Chat and Paon run to the sides of the street. The archangel shot past them knocking the cars down the road, and then it flips over like a snake and takes off down the street. Ladybug jumps back down to help Chat out of a taxi that pinned him to the wall. 

“Well that’s one mystery solved” Paon states while Chat stretches his back. Ladybug glances around and spots a motorcycle lying in the dust; she finds the helmet nearby and grabs it. 

“There’s no point swinging when I can’t see where I’m going, this should give me a light” she explains bringing her leg over to sit on the motorcycle, she flips open her yo-yo’s phone and after a few rings Rena’s face shows up on the screen. Ladybug and the boys relax slightly when neither Rena nor Carapace behind her had the zombie yellow eyes.  
Carapace tossed the shield at something off screen and the clang made Rena flinch slightly. “Rena I found the other boys and we saw the akuma, a giant dragon that spits flaming rocks”.

“Don’t let the zombies bite you, they got Bee already” Chat adds leaning his head on Ladybug’s shoulder, Rena would have chuckled had a zombie not tried to grab her from the side. Ladybug can only watch as the camera is thrown out of Rena’s hands and lands in the perfect position to see Zom-bee attempting to bite the fox. 

“I can see that, get over to the Colosseum” Rena cries before the call goes dead. Ladybug snaps her weapon closed and puts the red helmet over her head. 

“Can I get a lift my lady?” Chat asks leaning over the front of the bike making kissy lips, Ladybug rolls her eyes underneath the helmet and gently pushes the cat to the side. 

“Sorry not without a helmet kitty, you and Paon take to the skies. Meet you there” she calls revving the engine then blasting down the road with that oh so sweet sound of a motorcycle burning rubber. 

Chat sighs in a let-down but totally in love sort of way, Paon pats him on the back in mock sympathy. The sound of groaning is enough encouragement to get both of them shooting for the rooftops, leaving the army of walkers behind. 

 

Carapace smacks the next zombie using the shield to protect from the black goo that dripped out of the zombie’s mouth. The zombie staggered and fell down the stairs knocking over several more zombies crawling their way up. “Rena how are you doing over there?” he calls sparing a glance at the fox jumping up to send a diving Zom-bee into the wall behind her.

“I’m fine” she answers running into a tunnel where gladiators and such used to come out of to do battle, she slides to the wall and plays a familiar song on her flute. With a poof illusion Alya appears in front of her ready to record, Rena stares at her for a second than plays two more notes. Illusion Alya’s eyes get covered by orange smoke than appear yellow once it settles. She hands her illusion her phone just as Zom-bee finds her and charges, to Rena’s delight Zom-bee and a regular walker both ignore the illusion that looked like them. 

“Carapace I got an idea” the turtle hero looks over and spots Rena floating above him, she plays a few notes on her flute and suddenly his vision is covered by smoke. Carapace coughs and brings his hand up to swing the smoke away but Rena brings a hand to his. His vision clears and he readies his shield as more zombies approach, but slowly drops it when they just stand there dumbly. He looks over to Rena and gasps at her yellow eyes, but she brings a finger to her lips to shush him before he could say anything. 

 

The sound of motor rumbling is muffled by the horrible screech of the Archangel, Ladybug darts to the side to avoid the flaming rocks coming her way. It only now just occurred to her that she’s never actually driven a motorcycle before, so far so good but what was she going to do about the ramp? Her eyes widen in alarm at the makeshift ramp up ahead, made from cars piling up as they always seem to do when zombies occur. She looked helplessly at the controls and had no idea what would make it slow down so she could stop, she then has to move to the other side of the road to avoid the next attack. Going with what’s natural Ladybug tosses her yo-yo up at the beast and manages to get it wrapped around its little legs. She takes a deep breath and launches off the ramp, using the momentum, the speed, and the strength of her thighs she swings the motorcycle in a pendulum. She lets go of the bike at the perfect moment sending it right into the archangel’s head. The innocent bike explodes in a wondrous fireball and the beast roars in pain. Ladybug doesn’t get to cheer or wonder how she did that as the leg her yo-yo was attached to breaks off and sends her plummeting to the asphalt below. 

“Nice of you to drop in my lady” Chat calls as Ladybug grabs hold of her partner on his own motorcycle, his face covered by a black helmet with cat ears. He then has to go left sharply and makes his partner cling to his back; she swore he did that on purpose. The archangel now down to four wings takes off into the clouds, the enormous wings clearing the city of the fog it created for the moment. 

“Take a right here, the Colosseum is over there” Ladybug orders pointing to the massive ruins before the fog swallowed it up. Chat gives her a thumbs up and heads in that direction, even with his face hidden she could tell he was making that cheeky face as he turns sharply again. 

Chat comes to a stop in front of the Colosseum and waves to Paon coming in for a landing. The bird had a similar cat eared helmet as Chat, but his was a blue rather than black. Ladybug takes her helmet off to give him a “what are you doing” type of stare.

“What I wanted one too” Paon defends throwing his hands up so over dramatically he became a power ranger for a second. 

The boys keep their helmets on and follow Ladybug into the historic landmark, Ladybug knocking down the closest zombie and swinging her fist at the next one.

“Wait, wait it’s me” Rena cries blocking the attack; Ladybug blinks but drops her fist. “They don’t attack each other” the fox adds with a smile, Ladybug smirks and pats her on the head. 

“Clever fox” she says than jumps at the roar coming from above, the Archangel comes down from the heavens squishing several zombies as it lands in the Colosseum. Carapace stops his treatment of Zom-bee's arm and pushes them out of the massive creature’s way, once the dust settles the archangel shows the hero’s its jagged teeth. 

“You know when I think of angels I don’t picture dragon like beings” Paon blurts twirling his fans like a cowboy would with their guns. 

“Hey bug-a-boo do you know what I picture?” Chat asks placing his arm around her.

“DUCK” Ladybug cries 

“Well that’s not what I usually think but-oh” Chat joins the others in leaping out of the way of the archangels meteor breath. The zombies no longer interested in hero sandwiches scatter to avoid the flames, but they’re still zombies so most don’t get very far. 

Zom-bee flies over to Paon and moans at him, Paon freezes for a moment but Chat comes up behind him and throws a hand on his shoulder. The cat groans similar to Zom-bee and rolls his head to the side, Paon copies him and Zom-bee seems satisfied. The archangel lunges for them and Zom-bee summons her dipper and wacks it in the snout. 

Ladybug coughs as the illusion covers her eyes making them look like the rest of the dead, she smiles over at Zom-bee defending her boys from the Archangel. “Looks like she’s still our Queen Bee” she says to no one in particular, her eyes then spot a zombie Alya filming the whole thing. “And Alya is still Alya” 

Paon scans the creature while continuing to dodge the flames coming his way, but his eyes are drawn to a small spot on the middle wings of the creature. A patch of skin that was black. “Guys this is another Corrupt” he yells over the stone crumbling around them. 

“Lucky charm”

With a flash of red a necklace falls into Ladybug’s hands “a cross?”

“Technically it’s a rosary” Rena says swinging her flute like a bat and knocking one of the meteors back at the archangel, missing the look Ladybug shot her. Ladybug turns the rosary in her hands, the cross glinting off something. She looks to see Zom-bee floating by her, even in her state her wings still glowed when she used them. It made her very visible in the foggy city; Ladybug brings a hand to her chin as she thinks. “I got it, Paon fire a royal strike straight up” 

Paon looks over at her confusion clear even with the helmet blocking his face, but does as he’s asked. The wave of powerful wind clears the fog away and allows the sun to shine through; the archangel hisses in annoyance and brings the closest set of wings over its eyes. 

“Come on uh Zom-bee” Ladybug says grabbing her teammate and dragging her into position, Zom-bee just groans and enjoys the ride. Under Ladybug’s orders Carapace shoots the grapple hook and catches the wing on the left side, while Rena and Chat climb onto the beast and start bugging the hell out of it.

“Don’t be shy” Chat taunts slapping the archangel with a baton, Rena tickling the wing not being pulled down by Carapace. The archangel roars and flaps its wings to get them off, leaving its eyes wide open. 

Ladybug turns Bee around to get her wings reflecting off the sunlight, the light bounces off and magnifies on the glass rosary. The blinding light makes Ladybug shield her eyes as the Archangel screeches once more, with a loud pop Carapace accidentally pulls off the wing and the Archangel stumbles and falls on its back. The unevenness makes it difficult to get off the ground or flip over. Ladybug gives a small cheer and leaps down to the black patch of skin; Paon lands beside her and takes his helmet off. 

Once everyone else had grabbed onto something Ladybug pulls the patch off and triggers the black hole, without fear the red hero leaps into the hole and vanishes from sight. A bad feeling washes over Paon and he jumps in after her. 

Chat watches the hole getting more anxious at each passing second, a hiss draws his attention away and he sees Zom-bee clinging to his legs and reaching with her free hand towards his helmeted face. “Uh, nice Zom-bee, let’s just take it easy and ME-OW!” he cries out as she sinks her teeth into his leg.

Paon opens his eyes to a familiar surrounding; he was in a blue bubble drifting in an endless void of black. He spots some red in the darkness and yelps at the sight, Ladybug was unconscious with no bubble surrounding her slightly glowing body. He tries to grab her but the bubble blocks him from getting too close, he huffs in frustration then spies another bubble in the distance. With a silent apology he flies up and bumps Ladybug towards the other bubble. 

In the fetal position was much older women dressed as a nun, Paon creates the bow and arrow and fires at her. The bubbles pop and flood the room with a bright light, now able to touch Ladybug Paon brings her close and tries to wake her.

“Ladybug wake up” he whispers patting her face softly, but his teammate remained limp.

“She can’t help you, not here” an old voice says making the bird look up. The nun smiles to say hello and floats over to him, “this must be my soul, corrupted by that demon” she moves some hair out of Ladybug’s face. “Ordinary people can’t survive in here, but you…” she pauses as the shadow monster comes into view. It hissed and flew around them trying to get to them but not able to get close. The nun’s face flashes with fear for a moment, Paon pulls out another feather and it changes into an arrow. 

“You must be an angel” the nun finishes grabbing hold of Paon’s shoulder “please save me angel” she pleads, her sobs silent in the white void. Paon spares a glance at the unconscious Ladybug and back at the nun.

“I can only help you save yourself” Paon states holding up the arrow, the nun looks at it questionably than smiles gently. She takes hold of the arrow and her form melts into it, turning the arrow a bright green. The smoke monster yelps in fear but can’t fly away fast enough to dodge the arrow; Paon grabs hold of Ladybug as the monster’s dying light blinds him.

Had Illusion Alya been able to think on her own she would have been mind-blown by the sight in front of her, the Archangel is scooped into the sky by a massive peacock made out of the northern lights. She manages to keep the camera steady as it swallows the Archangel in its wings and explodes into a powerful light. Once it settles Paon appears holding a perplexed Ladybug, the nun lying next to them coming up with a gasp. 

“What just happened?” Ladybug asks allowing Paon to set her on her feet, the rest of the team come over minus Bee since she was now trapped by cage Rena had conjured up. The zombie part of her preventing her from realizing it was an illusion. 

“I guess your yo-yo is just for akuma’s” Paon answers’ twirling the bow still in his hands, Rena puts a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder as her face drops. 

“I couldn’t help…” Ladybug mutters quietly holding her weapon as if it had betrayed her. 

“What are you talking about? You were the one that got that creature to roll over, I call that being helpful” Rena chirps and the rest of the team agrees. Chat throws his arms around her and Ladybug giggles and pushes him back.

“I guess it isn’t too bad to share the purification burden…Chat please” she wipes away a tear and pushes her partner back playfully, he lunges at her again and her gigging stops  
“okay seriously Chat stop it” she commands. Chat makes a sound from within the helmet but no one pays him any attention. 

“Not to mention someone has to clean the damage done to the city” Paon chimes in and readies his last arrow, Ladybug accepts her lucky Charm from Carapace and throws it into  
the air.

“Miraculous Ladybug”

“Miraculous…peacock” Paon echoes quietly, it didn’t really seem necessary but just this once. The sky is swarmed by Ladybugs and feathers, the bugs focusing on the buildings while the feathers dropped down and touched the zombies both in one piece and two (or three or four) turning their bodies back to normal and clearing their eyes of yellow. Illusion Alya doesn’t notice the feather coming for her until it hits and makes her disappear with a poof. 

“What happened?” Chat asks pulling his helmet off after a feather sinks into his shoulder, he turns to Bee gazing innocently at the feathers and bird beetles. “You bit me” he accuses jabbing a finger at her.

“Wait you were a zombie?” Ladybug blurts before Bee could defend herself.

“You didn’t notice?” Chat asks back jaw dropping to the floor.

“You do act like a dummy most of the time” Bee jabs and takes to the sky laughing while Chat chases after her. 

“Guess we’d better get back to the train” Paon states as they wave off the nun heading back to her church, he glances around the Colosseum and frowns a little at the helmet he was using being gone. Yeah they did take it from a store without asking but the clerk was a zombie at the time, guess he would have to stick to the toque. 

“Yeah, that would be much easier than flying” Rena adds remembering having to fly all the way from the Achu kingdom when Carapace called. 

The team splits up other than Chat and Paon and lose their costumes in various hiding spots near the train beginning to board its confused but safe passengers. Plagg doesn’t waste a second before demanding his cheese, which Adrien rolls his eyes to but supplies the spoiled cat regardless.

“Nath we need to talk” Duusu says leaving her sandwich for the time being, whatever Nathaniel was going to say is cut off by the train’s horn. 

“I want to know what’s going on too” Adrien chirps setting Plagg into his shirt pocket, the kwami giving a loud gross burp. 

“Let’s talk once we get back to Oma’s, I’m sure she won’t mind us using a private room” Nathaniel states, Duusu sighs but agrees and pops back into her nest for a restless nap. 

 

This had to be the worst day of her life, the large purple and black spider thought to herself as she slid out the window. She had managed to escape the circle by pulling off one of her legs, and tossing it outside the circle. She repeated it until she had no more legs to throw and dragged herself into the edge of the circle, the demotic circle burning her body to a crisp. From there she reformed herself quickly from her discarded legs and made a mad dash for outside. She was the smallest she’s ever been, the grass looked like a vast jungle as she traveled over each blade. She hated walking, it was the males that did the walking, not the females. The females sat in a web and waited for food to come to them. Of course most spiders didn’t have a giant witch almost kill them, so the walking was necessary. But she needed a break; she spits a sting of web and swings over to a man in a swimsuit walking across the grass. Hopefully her small size wouldn’t alert him to the hitchhiker on his butt. Alas her bad luck continues since he spots her, squeals like a big baby, swats her off and she lands on the wheels of a bike passing by. The biker doesn’t notice her screaming as she holds on to the spokes of the bike, okay she was going much faster now but this wasn’t the type of ride she was hoping for. If she lived through this (and she would) she was going to say screw helping the blood head, and go eat the human that originally trapped her in France.

Although he was probably dead now, maybe she’ll eat his children instead. But he was also ugly…whatever she was going to England and she was going to eat someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a religious person, but I did remember once hearing that some angels might actually be dragon like beings rather than winged humans. Looking into it I found only the seraphim are the six winged serpents but I really liked the idea so I rolled with it anyway.  
> I also will be taking the team all over Europe but I don't really understand how the train systems work, try as I might I just get confused. So it might not make perfect sense but I will try my best


	19. Who let the dogs out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parts of this were written while Baha men played in the background, others not so much.

Chapter 19 who let the dogs out  
“Ah the great guardian Master Fu, what an honour to have you at my residence” Oma chirped with a cheeky grin, she dropped the formality and threw her arms around the old man. 

“How could I refuse a chance to see an old friend again? Not to mention your spa’s have just what my tired muscles need” Master Fu returns the hug then steps into Oma’s private home. He smiled looking at the familiar room, the same green blankets on her favorite wooden rocking chair. The many moon inspired trinkets locked away in a grand china cabinet, sparkling slightly despite their age. And of course there was Oma Blutmond herself, like the willows growing outside she only grew lovelier as time went by. 

“Yes my spas are best in the land for a reason” Oma says opening a chest pushed to the side of the room, she pulled out two red velvet pillows and tossed one on the floor next to the coffee table. 

“You’ve kept those after all this time” Fu purred carefully bringing his body down to sit atop the pillow.

“I know you prefer to sit on the ground, afraid I can’t do the same I wouldn’t be able to get up” she throws her head back to cackle and sits on the couch opposite her friend. “Do you still have that turtle I gave you?” she asks setting her pillow on her side.

“The stuffed one, yes he’s always by my bedside” Fu nods his head, “amazing how a few herbs stuffed within a toy can keep nightmares away”.

“I made it to last Fu, after everything you’ve done for me…for us” Oma replies voice losing its cheer for a moment, Lancelot walks in carrying several towels fresh from laundry. He freezes for a moment seeing the great guardian then bows his head in respect. 

“Lancelot when you’re done with the laundry can you please prepare us some tea, Fu and I have a lot to catch up on” Oma orders politely. Lancelot nods and continues on his way to put the towels back in the rooms. 

“Why don’t you just magically poof up some?” Ralph blurts coming from the kitchen munching away on a candy bar.

“I’m not going to waste energy on what can be done without ma-“Oma slams her mouth shut as the front door opens and Nathaniel steps in, Adrien at his heels.

“Hey Oma do you mind if we use the spare room” Nath asks boldly, “Adrien and I need to talk about some things” he adds pushing some hair behind his ear. Adrien doesn’t say anything but waves shyly at Oma, the boys recall the man in the tropical red shirt but neither say anything about it.

“Go ahead Nathaniel-“Oma says turning her attention away to accept the teacup Lancelot handed her, smiling in thanks to her familiar. “-condoms are in the nightstand” she yells as the boys disappear down the hall.

“OMA” Nath cries then the door slams shut, Oma nearly spills her tea laughing. Fu laughs along quietly while Ralph groans and disappears back into the kitchen to raid the fridge, Lancelot following behind shaking his head but smiling regardless. 

Oma stops laughing and gets to her feet “excuse me for a moment Fu, I need to do something” her voice so serious that Fu doesn’t object as she quickly goes to her kitchen. She pushes past Ralph to pull out some hot chocolate and a few dried plants, expertly adding bits and springs to the concoction. “This will show me if the spider was telling the truth” she mutters to herself and creates another one without the herbs. “Lancelot bring these to the boys please-“she pauses to allow him to place the drinks on a tray “-if Nathaniel throws up come get me immediately”. 

“Heh your grandma is quite the character” Adrien says at last, sitting down on the old blue chair and letting Plagg out from his hiding place. The black kwami nearly red from holding in his laughter, he makes it to the top of the chair before collapsing in a fit of giggles. 

Nath didn’t say anything face still buried in his hands, his hair parted to show his neck as red as his face likely was. Duusu flew out from his bag and gave a big sigh, “Let’s not dwell on that, Nath can you tell me about this vision you had?” her tone so serious it even smarts Plagg up. 

Nathaniel sits down on the boxes in the room thankful for the change of subject; he brings his legs to a criss cross and explains his last dream. Duusu seemed deep in thought when he finished, Adrien picked at the blue curtains waiting for her to speak. 

“Nath, have you been having nightmares too?” Duusu asks after what seemed like an eternity.

“Well…yea ever since I lost you, but they haven’t been bad” he fibbed the last part; Adrien’s face flashes with guilt. If he had taken Hawk moth down back then maybe all this wouldn’t have happened. 

“I’m sorry Nath, I should have warned you this could happen” Duusu leaps into Nathaniel’s chest so quickly Adrien blinked and missed it. “Since you never technically gave me up my power must have stayed with you, the visions can be awful” she continued trying her best to hug him, her memory jumped back to many years ago. Her holder waking up at all hours of the night screaming then running to her babies room, trusting no one but her kwami, her husband and her best friend with them. It still wasn’t enough to predict what was to come.

“Wait, so Nath can see the future? That’s awesome; we can use it to our advantage” Adrien pipes in trying to lighten the mood, his charming smile faltering at the helpless look Nath sent him. 

“Not exactly, time is how you say…. wibbly wobbly. What Nath sees could mean hundreds of things, the last one with the skeleton pointing to its waist could have meant where the akuma was. Or it maybe was referring to where the feather arrows are on his costume” Duusu explained flying up to sit on Nathaniel’s shoulder. 

“So I’m stuck with these nightmares…visions for a while” Nath mutters then lets out a big sigh “I’ll try my best to figure out what they mean” he adds after a moment. Adrian stands up to head out, it was getting late and Nino was probably getting ready for bed. The last thing he wanted was to try to get some sleep while his roommate was already snoring away, hard enough to sleep through it. 

He throws his arm around Nath for a quick but needed one arm hug, “I’ll see you in a bit” Adrien says opening the door and nearly running into Lancelot. The mute man smiles gently and offers the normal cup, Adrien stands in front of the door long enough to allow Duusu time to hide. Nath winces from a powerful headache running though his skull so quickly he feels faint for a moment, then just as suddenly the pain was gone. Unseen from either red head or kwami was it literally slithering down his back and hiding under the boxes.

“Uh thanks I’ll just take it with me if that’s alright” Adrien says quickly, taking the drink and heading off down the hall, Lancelot comes and places the tray down on the table. His smile almost nervous as he handed Nathaniel his cup, Nath took it and smelled it.

“Another one of Oma’s health drinks” he asks recalling the slight odd smell mixing with the sweet coco, he takes a sip and coughs slightly at the heat burning his tongue. Lancelot lets out a breath he’d been holding as he pretended to be replacing the candles in the bathroom. The spider had lied, that was a relief. Nathaniel put his cup on the nightstand and said something about needing fresh air; he left the room to head to his Oma’s balcony. 

He caught Ralph’s attention as he walked past the kitchen, the older man called for him but Nath kept walking. Not even sparing a glance at his birth father, Nath heard him growl behind him and by habit his feet sped up. He doesn’t stop until he’s closed the door behind him, resisting the urge to lock the door. He wasn’t a little boy anymore, hell he was a superhero now. He fought things scarier than Ralph on almost a daily basis. It takes Duusu to grab his hand for Nathaniel to realize how heavily he was breathing; he really needed that fresh air now. 

 

“Well Sabrina, what do I do?” Chloe asks staring at her friend though the skype app. The reception was terrible and Sabrina’s camera froze several times but Chloe was at a loss and Pollen was being no help. “Just ask him” wasn’t going to work if she kept chickening out, not that she told Sabrina that.

“Okay let’s see if I got the info right: you have a crush on someone and you want to know if they like you too, but you’re not sure if the answer will be satisfactory” she pushed her glasses up her nose and Chloe nodded patience starting to dwindle. Sabrina typed something on her laptop and tried to hold back a yawn unsuccessfully “here’s what I suggest, go up to him and talk with him. Don’t mention your feelings, just learn stuff about him and tell him things about you”.

“How’s that going to help me?”

“If you really like this guy you have to be his friend first, sounds like to me you know next to nothing about this guy. If you find out he’s kind, funny and charming with you as well as other people it will be easier for you to confess your feelings” Sabrina stated “at least according to the this site”. 

Chloe groaned and dropped her head onto the pillow holding her chin up, “thanks I guess” she sighs and Sabrina gives a tired but sweet goodbye and signs off. Chloe tosses the phone to the end of her bed and walks over to the window, the moon giving her a view of the buildings. She spies a hooded figure crawl up to the roof of a building and sits down to watch the stars. Chloe looks back at Pollen coming out of her hiding spot and back at the figure. Maybe she’d practice with him.

Carapace sighs when he hears the flutter of Queen Bee’s wings behind him, her heels tapping loudly on the roof. “Hey…” she starts quietly, “Whatcha doing up here?”

“Just enjoying the view” Carapace claims taking an arm out to gesture towards the many stars become visible as the lights from buildings go out. Bee hums in agreement; the city of light had its disadvantages. She flies over and sits beside him, her wings giving enough glows to catch the glum look on his face. 

“Something not right in turtle-ville?” she asks leaning back on her arms, Carapace gives a chuckle and picks at his gloves.

“Nah everything’s fine with me, what about you dude?” he says quickly, taking the shield off to lie on his back and put his hands behind his head. 

“You should know better than to call the Queen, dude” Bee jabs playfully, deciding to copy his position. Her legs crossed each other and one bounced restlessly. 

“Dudette” Carapace chirps automatically, Bee laughs sarcastically. “So I know you’re not here to correct my speech, what’s up Bee?” Bee sighs dramatically and runs a hand though her hair.

“I’m a little bummed myself, I needed to ask Paon something today but-“

“-You chickened out” Carapace finishes for her, Bee huffs but doesn’t deny it. “Not like the guy sticks around after an akuma attack, I think he’s the only one who has never spoken to the paparazzi” he continues making a popping sound with his mouth. 

“No kidding” Bee agrees with a sigh, “Paon and Rena are pretty camera shy, heck remember when Rena first appeared?” Bee sits up to stretch her arms “only showing up at night and flying away before the camera’s appeared” 

Carapace stiffens, his mind going back to a particular night. He had stayed up late to finish a mix he had done on his favorite song that year and was just about to go to bed when there was a noise by the window. He pushed away the curtains to see a girl on his roof; she was on her knees covering her mouth with one hand. He couldn’t ignore the muffled sobbing and called out to her, she turned to him eyes wide in fright.

“I’m not an akuma I swear” she cried standing up and revealing her features to him, her large brown eyes glossy from unshed tears. Her fox based costume clung to her skin and her hair tied and dyed like multiple fox tails. 

“I believe you” Nino started pausing to gather his thoughts “are you a hero like Ladybug?”

Her lip quivered and she swallowed hard, “I tried to….but…but” the mask did nothing to hide the way her voice cracked. Nino climbed through the window to crawl over to her, she gasped and threw her arms out to him when he got close. “What are you doing? You’ll fall” she cried as if jinxing his steps, Nino’s foot slipped and she grabbed hold of him before he fell below. 

“Not the first time I’ve walked on the rooftop” Nino states giving a small laugh “first time I’ve slipped”. He bites his lip when the fox girl lets go of him and takes a step back. 

“Wait…” by instinct he grabs her hand, “you look like you need a friend right now, I’m willing to lend an ear”.

The fox girl stares at him for a moment, than sighs and sits down. Nino sat beside her and waited for her to talk, the sounds of Paris dying down in the late hour. 

“I became….this today….and I was excited to work with Ladybug and Chat Noir, I went up to them during patrol to introduce myself” she started looking up at the moon. “Ladybug was less than happy to see me...” she wiped a tear from her eye at the memory, “they attacked me, said I was no hero”. 

“You saved me just now, that make you a hero to me” Nino offered eyes drawn to her multi coloured ponytail, “and you’re way too pretty to be an akuma” he adds without thinking. The fox girl giggles and smirks at him, Nino blushes and turns his head away. 

“You think so?” she asks eyes gaining a tinge of mischief. 

“Afraid I’m a taken man, but I’m sure my girlfriend would agree” Nino says with a sheepish smile.

“That I’m a hero or that I’m pretty?” Fox girl chirps raising a brow, Nino scratches behind his head wishing for a second he had his hat to hide his burning face. 

“Both, Alya chases after Ladybug so much I’m half convinced she’s got a bit of a crush on her, but she’s still the most amazing person I know”  
Fox girl felt her cheeks grow warm under the mask, she couldn’t have asked for a better boyfriend. She pulled out her flute from its strap on her back, she plays a few notes and practices what Trixx told her. Picture the illusion you want in your mind and it will appear, longer songs for bigger illusions, short for smaller ones. She opens her eyes to find an illusion of a robin sitting on her leg, Nino was astonished.

“That’s awesome, that’s your power?” he asks attempting to touch the bird only for it to fade though his hand in a cloud of orange smoke, his smile faltered realizing he had destroyed it.

“I can make up to five before my miraculous starts to lose power” Fox girl explains blowing a few more notes to create a new illusion, this time it was a fox kit that cuddled into her lap. “But what good is it if I can’t join Ladybug in protecting Paris?” she adds stroking the illusion, if she was gentle its form would keep its shape. 

“Then don’t join her, not yet anyway” Nino says chuckling at her ears perking “why don’t you prove to Ladybug that you’re a hero, go around at night and help people. Then Ladybug will see that you’re not just some akuma, you’re a real deal superhero” he puts a hand on his chest “I’ll get Alya to get some photos of you in your acts of heroism and Ladybug will be begging you to join her team”.

Fox girl smile lost its hope for a moment, how could Alya record her when she was Alya? Suddenly her eyes lit up with an idea and she stands up so quickly she hovers in the air. “You’re a genius Nino, I’ll be running with Ladybug and Chat Noir in no time” she squealed lifting him into a hug. Nino laughed along with her and allowed her to assist him back into his bedroom.

“I know I am, how’d you know my name?” Nino chirps and gives his own mischievous smirk. 

“I-uh know that Alya is the lady blogger and you said you were her girlfriend-I mean boyfriend so I just put two and two together, and look at the time I’d better get going” she stammers turning her back to fly off.

“I look forward to seeing you in action Volpina” Nino says tipping an imaginary hat, she gives him a thumbs up and a wink. She takes two steps than shoots off into the sky mind racing with ideas; Ladybug would see her as a hero for sure. 

 

“DUDE” Bee cries waving her hands in front of Carapace, the turtle blinks and nearly rolls of the roof. “About time, I was starting to think you slept with your eyes open” she adds sitting back down. 

“Sorry I was just thinking about something” Carapace says once he’s recovered.

“Thinking about Rena?” Bee asks with a smirk blooming on her face.

“Yes but not like that” he cries picking up his shield and attaching it to his back, “I’m a taken man you know”.

“I didn’t actually; hope you don’t drift off like that with her” 

He sighed and frowned “I was hoping to spend time with her here, but with Hawk moth attacking so often I haven’t been able to” Bee remains quiet crossing her arms, must be tough trying to keep up a relationship while keeping such a secret. Carapace yawns and gives the sky one last look “we should get some rest, who knows where Hawk moth will strike next” Bee nods and takes off towards her building, hiding in the shadows so he wouldn’t see which window she snuck in. Carapace takes a detour to the spa’s kitchen, he spots Adrien making his way back to the room and sighs knowing he’d have to make this fast. 

 

Adrien doesn’t even make it inside the room before a car honks at him; he turns to the noise and sees a familiar car at the edge of the spa’s property almost hidden by the shadows. Nathalie steps out and coldly waves him over, she nearly has a facial expression when Adrien charges and wraps his arms around her. 

“Adrien your father has been worried sick about you, you are to return to the Agreste mansion so you’ll be safe from Hawk moth” She states in her usual tone.  
Adrien drops his arms “Nathalie…I thought you were…” his neck hairs rise in alarm when she grabs his arm. There was a spark behind Nathalie’s eyes, something that wasn’t human.

“You’re coming back with me, like it or not” she hisses in his ear and pushes Adrien into the car, Adrien opens his mouth to protest only for a black snake to wrap around his head and turn itself into a gag. More snakes make their presence known at his feet and Adrien looks up helplessly at his driver. The large man didn’t look at him and stepped on the gas at Nathalie’s command. Adrien screams into the demonic reptile as they speed off into the night. His hot chocolate mug lay in the dirt burning some of the lemon balm beside it. 

Nino’s phone buzzes and makes the boy jump as he tosses his hat onto a coat stand on the other end of the room. All that practice with the shield was giving him quite the talent with Frisbee throws. He opens the phone and gives a large sigh, “Wayzz you can come out, Adrien’s not coming”. 

The turtle kwami pops out of the backpack and zips over to him “is everything alright?” he asks as Nino tosses the phone behind him. 

“Adrien’s dad is putting him on lock down, again. As if he can be more protected if he’s at home, his dad just wants to show how much control he has” Nino complained clenching his jaw, as if he felt the frustration from Adrien from afar. 

Wayzz drops to sit on Nino’s knee “Let’s not get too upset here, we don’t want a return of the bubbler” he say only half-jokingly. Sure with the miraculous Nino was immune to an akuma’s temptation but negative emotions were dangerous to dwell in. Nino smirks at him and pulls out a paper bag from his backpack, he takes out a cookie and takes a large bite out of it.

“No definitely not” Nino agrees wincing from the cookies taste “whoa these are sweet” he offers Wayzz a bite to which the kwami politely declines. 

“You know you were supposed to get more of my cherry tomato’s to recharge after we transform, not get unhealthy pastries” he adds placing his nubs on where his hips would be like a scolding mother. 

Nino chuckles and throws his arms up in mock surrender “I was going to honest, but everywhere was closed except the spa’s kitchen” he finishes the one and tosses the bag back into his backpack. “Besides she gave me these ones for free, new recipe or something” he adds coughing slightly from the taste. “Don’t think they’re going to sell great, unless everyone here has Adrien’s sweet tooth” Nino tries to laugh but coughs again and rushes for the bathroom to wash his mouth out with some water. Wayzz sighs and pulls a pillow over to the nightstand, he knew Adrien would find a way to fight an akuma if needed but he couldn’t shake the bad feeling from his gut. 

 

“Alya you have to promise me you’ll stop running into these akuma attacks, you could get seriously hurt” Marionette cried once Alya stepped into the room, since there was no Wi-Fi connection at all in the normal girls dorm Alya had come back from the private house to double check her blog. 

“I am Marionette, Rena Rouge and I have a deal. She creates an illusion of me to get the footage and I supply her with chocolate bars” Alya explains hoping her excuse worked. It did explain why she had so many chocolate bars in her bag constantly.

“Even that interview in Achu?” Marionette narrows her brow and puts her hands on her hips, Alya smiles nervously and protectively hides her phone in her back pocket.

“Okay that might have been me but I swear I wasn’t near the akuma or the corrupt battles at all” she puts a hand over her heart as if to swear on it and not the necklace hidden underneath her shirt. Marionette sighs but drops her steady gaze to walk over to her bed; Alya would never understand how she could sleep with those pigtails in. 

“How’d you convince Rena to record for you?” she asked after a moment of silence, Alya spies Trixx sleeping peacefully in her bag and smiles softly.

“The same way she convinced me to focus more on documenting the attacks and hero’s rather than on Ladybug’s identity” Alya says getting under the covers and taking her glasses off. “It’s our little secret” she adds giving her friend a wink than clicking the light off by her bed, she could hear Marionette groan loudly than flop down on her bed. 

 

Several hours later Adrien jerks awake taking in a big gulp of air that the reptile had denied him. Nathalie sat beside him not even flinching when a large reptile slithered up her waist and hissed in her ear, she looked at it bored and flicked it on the snout. The reptile hissed offended but left her to crawl under the seat, Adrien peeked at the driver and caught his eye for a moment. The gorilla of a driver pulled at the top of his seat belt three times to test its strength and continued watching the road. Adrien knew that signal, it usually meant a bumpy road ahead and all passengers should have their seat belts on. From what he could see the road ahead was smooth despite being dirt and had trees on both sides, Adrian put his seat belt on careful not to startle any of the snakes, he bit his lip when one objected and hissed. Nathalie leaned over to scoop the reptile and toss it under her seat; she wasn’t wearing her seat belt for once. 

The gorilla took a deep breath and sped the car up, Adrien held his breath. The gorilla steered the car to its side sharply and smashed it against a tree, Nathalie cried out in surprise as she was thrown from her seat and out the window. The gorilla recovers from the crash and rushes out of his seat, he steps outside to open Adrien’s door. A snake jumped out at him when he opened it, but his reflexes caught the snake mid-air and he stomps it into the ground. Adrien quickly unbuckles his belt and gets out of the car; the gorilla pushes him towards the trees and gives a growl in his throat. 

“I can’t leave you here” Adrien cries stubbornly grabbing the gorilla by his massive arm and trying to pull him. The bodyguard doesn’t budge and gently shoves Adrien off; he uses his strength to smash another snake and points towards the trees again. Adrien wants to argue more but the sound of Nathalie stomping towards them stops him, “I’ll find help” Adrien calls running off into the trees. The light from the car behind him helped him see where he was going for a bit, but soon he was blindly racing though the flora. He can hear grunting and hissing as his bodyguard fought against Nathalie, or whoever she was now. In the dark he opens his jacket to poke at Plagg, the kwami wiggles and his green eyes opened to glow in the dark. 

“If this is about your three AM thoughts I don’t want to hear them” Plagg complained rubbing his eyes and letting out a loud yawn. 

“Are you serious right now? I was just kidnapped by Nathalie and now the gorilla needs our help” Adrian snapped jumping when a rat zipped by his feet.

“Doesn’t Nathalie kidnap you on a daily basis? Kind of her job isn’t it” Plagg mumbled trying to get back into Adrien’s pocket but the modal grabbed him before he got far. 

“Nathalie isn’t really herself right now remember?”

“Oh yeah” came the uninterested reply. Adrian rolls his eyes and sucks the kwami into his ring, hoping Plagg had enough juice to keep him going till sunrise. With a flash Chat Noir appears and races back towards the car wreck, able to go much faster being able to see what was in front of him. 

Chat pounces into action and spins his staff expecting snakes to leap out at him, but nothing does. He blinks confused to find the car still there but nothing alive, he swallows his fear and checks inside the car but found nothing. His ears flatten as he finds the gorilla’s cell phone lying on the ground nearby, he puts the device in his pocket not bothering to check its last message. He had to get back to Blutmond Spas, at the very least let Paon know what just happened. He fiddles with his baton’s phone and isn’t surprised when no one picks up; it was too early in the morning for anyone to be awake. With a sigh he heads down the road aiming to find a street sign to indicate where he was, his boots pounding on the ground as he went. 

He stops at a crossroad and groans loudly at the sign, its letters faded and unreadable. He’s just about to pick a random direction when a crack perks his ears. The bone crunching sound brings the cat over behind a rock where something was munching away on a dead rat. Chat is about to turn away disgusted by nature’s cruel ways when a light catches his attention. The being eating the rat finished its liver and its veins glowed softly as it grew slightly in size. “Demon” Chat cries than covers his mouth; the demon still heard him and looks up from its meal. 

“Looking for a deal strange…..oh fook it’s you” the spider snaps jumping from the rat and putting her front legs out in challenge.

Chat’s eyes widen in realization “Why aren’t you dead?” he snaps swinging his baton and almost hitting her, but she leaps away and lands in a pile of leaves.

“Can’t kill a demon that easily piss-head” she fires back scurrying from his attacks. 

“Well I won’t mess up this time, Cata-!” he’s cut off by her shooting a glob of web into his mouth, Chat flails and gags trying to get the gunk out. 

The spider shoots another string and climbs on to the cat’s baton, “okay look, I don’t like you and you don’t like me but maybe we can help each other out here”. She starts and holds on tight as Chat swings it in his rapid spasm to get the rest of the gunk off. 

“And just how would you help me? I can figure out how to get back by myself” Chat hisses baring his teeth like a cat would, the intimidation lost with his buck teeth. 

“I don’t doubt that kitty chaos, but I seriously need protection right now and I know very important information about the demons you’re facing” she pauses to check if the cat was listening, to her relief he hadn’t thrown her off yet. “Like I know when the next corrupt is going to strike …” she adds to fuel his curiosity.

“And where would that be?” Chat demanded, unable to hide the pout making its way onto his face.

“Protect me and we have a deal” she urged crawling off his baton and stepping on his hand, making it look like she trusted him not to summon his rotten power. In reality she had a small string stuck to his baton ready to swing her back if he tried. 

“Fine then, it’s a deal” Chat growled pinching her body and putting her on the ground, “but you’ll have to keep-“he stops mid-sentence as she leaps up and lands on his hair, humming softly as she settled herself down on the soft strands. Chat groans but continues his way down the road, resisting the urge to slap the arachnid out.

“Blutmond spa is the other way” she calls, Chat grumbled and changes direction. 

 

It was cold and wet, that was the first thing Nathaniel noticed, his breaths involuntarily came out short and frantic. If it kept up he was going to pass out, a whoosh of wind slips by his side and he takes off down a tunnel of sorts. His feet echoing off the walls, he looks behind him to see something chasing him. The creature was dressed like a plague doctor but its feet were actual talons and it had wings tucked behind it. Its eyes peered into his soul and makes him trip over his feet into a puddle below. He turns around in time to see the talons of the creature come for his face; he lets out a scream and throws his arm up to shield his face. 

Nathaniel jerks and finds himself back in the living room, his arm still held up to block from the creature, he lets out a sigh placing it down realizing it was over. That is until he catches the eye of someone sitting in Oma’s chair, glaring at him like a hawk its prey. Nath tried to move but found his body paralyzed to the spot, the figure got up from the chair and started to stumble towards him. Nath struggled to move and hears a child whimpering, it takes him a second to realize it was coming from him. The figure grabs his arm and forces him to sit up, the beer on its breath very noticeable. 

“You lied to me you little shit, you said you didn’t tell her” it hissed shaking the smaller boy, Nath felt his mouth move on its own but can’t make out what comes out. It only succeeds in making the figure angrier and it brings a hand up to strike him. 

Nathaniel spasms awake a scream stuck in his throat, he checks his arm on reflex to find no bruise forming but rubs it regardless. He brings a hand over to wake Duusu but stops midway; his stomach had other plans that needed attending to first. Quickly but quietly he takes off from the couch and runs into the bathroom, heaving several times emptying his gut of stomach acid. Once he’s done he groans softly and leans against the cool wall waiting for the second round. When nothing comes he does his best to clean up and washes his face and mouth in the sink. He sinks back down to the floor trying to calm down and if he wasn’t so drained he would have jumped when a buzz echoed in the room. He drags his hand across the floor and finds the device responsible, making a sound of confusion when he discovers what it is.

The black device had several stickers on it, including a paintbrush and a Chat Noir paw. His phone looked the same way it had when he intruded on the Agreste mansion, but what was it doing here? Its screen lights up when he presses the home button, a text on its notifications.

~You awake now? I call you okay :)~ 

The phone number had been changed simply to the letter E, Nath raised a brow at this, who the heck was E? He doesn’t have time to wonder as the phone starts buzzing with a call, the picture that came up making his blood run cold. 

It was a picture of him, lying unconscious while a snake slithered over his body. A shadow from the photographer loomed over his body and the snake looked up innocently at the camera. When had this been taken? Where had it been taken? Nath didn’t recognize the white carpet he was lying on in the photo, his hands trembled and he presses the talk button. 

“Hello?” a voice chirped from the phone, Nathaniel nearly dropped the phone not realizing he had hit the button. The voice chuckles before speaking again “did my photo spook you? Sorry about that, I just like you more when you’re “quiet” you know? Keeping the phone by your ear and listening to me speak” the voice continued while a buzzing sound entered Nathaniel’s ear. 

Nathanial didn’t say anything as the voice continued, he slumped slightly eyes growing dull. “Yeah that’s what I like to see, now Nath can you open the window for me? I have a friend waiting for you”. Nath slowly got to his feet and pushed the window open, allowing a giant sized akuma to make its way in. It fluttered around the small bathroom and landed on the boy’s outstretched arm. It flapped its wings happily than jumped off in fright when a black snake slithered under the door and made its way up Nathaniel’s body. It gave a menacing hiss in his face but Nath remains entranced by the voice in his ear. 

“Good boy Nath, now we had to improvise back there thanks to that grandma of yours, but thankfully my snakes and you are well trained” E purrs and the akuma brightens the room in a glorious purple light. Nathaniel’s eyes widened to allow as much light as possible in, letting his mind go blank and his body go numb. The snake hissed again and sank its fangs into Nathaniel’s neck, wrapping its body around it like a collar. Nath didn’t flinch even when the snake became smoke and absorbed into the bite, once it was gone the akuma stopped its light show and fluttered into his chest. Nath dropped to the floor as the weight of his body returned all at once.

“I know it hurts puppet but I can’t afford to lose you” E coos from the phone, Nath’s heavy breathing echoing in the bathroom. “Now then I’ll talk with you later; I have some orders for the other guy”.

Duusu peeked up from her nest and swallowed when she didn’t see her peachick on the couch; she spies a light behind the bathroom and zips over to it checking for people first before knocking softly. She darts to the top of the door when it opens and sighs in relief when Nath walks out. 

“Did you have a vision?” she asks gently, Nath brings a hand up to catch her and he nods after a moment. Duusu allows him to carry her back to the couch and quietly explain what happened in the dream. “I’ll let Adrien know when he comes in tomorrow, you should be able to sleep without another nightmare now” she says helping him lay down and putting the cover over him. He fell back asleep before she had even finished speaking; she placed a nub on his forehead using some of her power to steady his breathing. She needed to ask Plagg to bring her Tikki, Tikki was much better at equaling out negative energies. If she kept going like this she was going to get sick, and then her pea chick would suffer from the overwhelming amount of energy that seemed to swarm around him. She curled up next to his chest hiding underneath the blanket, her breathing becoming labored as time went on. 

 

Wayzz wakes up the next morning to Nino falling out of the bed and smacking his head loudly on the floor. “Are you okay Master Nino?” he asks flying up from his makeshift bed to the boy.

“No I’m not…what kind of miraculous side effect is this?” Nino cries holding up his hand, Wayzz gasps seeing the boys hands had become much too small and fuzzy. 

“That’s not me” Wayzz flies over and grabs the hand, he could see fur starting to grow on the skin, Nino rushes to the bathroom to discover large dog ears had appeared on the top of his head. 

“What’s causing this?” Wayzz asks zipping back into the room and looking for anything akuma-like. The paper bag getting his attention, “Master Nino it’s the cook…where’d you go?”

Wayzz looks around the seemingly empty bathroom than spots Nino’s clothing laying on the ground, Wayzz yelps and moves the shirt to reveal the confused face of a French bulldog that was once Nino. “Oh dear” he mutters, Nino tilts his head to the side and gives a small bark. “Okay I’m going to find someone that can help…you stay there” with that Wayzz leaves phasing though the door and racing to the nearest building he knew had hero’s in it. The door bumps open and Nino walks out to play with a poodle that ran past. 

 

“Duusu, are you okay?” Nathaniel asks picking up the limp kwami, worry rising to the surface as she gives a weak reply. Her colours had faded slightly and she groaned softly in his hands. 

“Has Adrien showed up yet?” she asks trying to sit up but finding it to be too much work, “oh I jinxed myself last night” she whined curling her back feathers over her body. 

“No he hasn’t, what’s going on, are you sick?” Nath stands up quickly and throws his jacket on; Duusu nodded and looked up at him with glassy eyes. Nathaniel bites his lip “I’m sorry, maybe the vision was warning about sickness and I didn’t…” Duusu stops him there using what energy she could manage to bop him on the head.

“You only just learned they were visions Nath, it takes time to understand them” she chirps weakly, “I should be fine in a few days….”

“Just ask the great guardian to fix you up, I think he’s still here” a voice chirps from somewhere, Nath brings Duusu close to his chest defensively and picks up the pillow he had been using for a weapon. He spots an orange tail peeking out of one of the jars in the kitchen and runs over to it. He throws the covers the jar with the lid and peeks under it. Two long ears followed by purple eyes phase though the jar and Nath yelped in surprise. The creature laughed at him and fully phased out of the jar, a chunk of chocolate in his paws. 

“Trixx…” Duusu cried weakly, and the fox kwami flew over to his friend’s flailing arms trying to reach him. “You do realize you’re not supposed to show yourself to other people right?” Duusu added once they dropped the hug. 

“It wasn’t my intention to be seen, I was trying to do some Devine intervention” Trixx chirped finishing the chocolate in his nubs. “You work yourself too hard Duusu, you have to let us help you now that we’re all here” he added placing his paw on Duusu’s head. 

“So you’re…” Nathaniel starts but Trixx cuts him off full of energy again.

“Rena rouge’s kwami, yes sir kwami of mischief and being awesome” he gives a play bow in the air “you must be Duusu’s little peachick, pretty cute aren’t you” Trixx gains a mischievous grin and he flies in his face. “We should totally trade sometime Duusu” he jokes making the sick kwami giggle than cough. 

“You said something about a guardian?” Nath asked only for a big bang to come from the door, Nath puts Duusu in his pocket just before hundreds of dogs came charging into the room. 

Trixx gasped and hid behind Nathaniel’s hair as the dogs surrounded them barking and jumping on furniture. “He’s the fat man in the red shirt but not Santa, now get me out of here” he cried over the dogs. 

Nath covered the two kwami’s as he pushed past the canines, “where did all these dogs come from?” he mutters nearly tripping over a Labrador. A bulldog and a German shepherd start tugging on his bag and rip the pages within, “hey let go of those” Nath steps in and tries to take his bag back. Dalmatians knocked over the table wrestling with one another, a Pomeranian jumped up on the couch and started barking orders at the larger canines to no success. Nath manages to get his bag back wincing as the bag ripped loudly spilling its contents onto the floor. He doesn’t have time to groan about it as the akuma blasts into the chaos, dressed like a chef with massive muscular arms. She turned to the boy and pointed her whisk at him.

“Think my food tastes like dog food eh, well now the kibble cook will make you love it” she cries zapping a paw print beam at him, Nath ducks behind the couch before it could hit him. 

“Why did it have to be dogs?” Trixx whines grabbing hold of Nathaniel’s neck and hiding his face in his tail. Nath spots the remains of Oma’s china cabinet and picks up her oldest find. A wolf bone brittle with age but would do the trick, while the akuma prepares her next shot Nath fires the bone at her head.

“Fetch”

Kibble Cook throws her arms out as she’s tackled by the dogs going after the bone, Nath doesn’t waste a second and dashes outside while she’s distracted. He is just about to slam the door when light envelopes him and he falls to the ground. Nath can hear Trixx groaning and opens his eyes to find Duusu whimpering in front of him and two golden paws. He looks down at his body and sure enough he had been transformed into a fluffy dog, a doodle to be exact.

“What am I going to do, I can’t open doors while carrying a sick kwami” Trixx is saying to himself as he picks up Duusu and struggles to fly while keeping her balanced. “Okay I just got to get there somehow and not turn us into-“

“-CHEW TOYS” he cries as Nath grabs them midair in his mouth and starts racing to the men’s dorm, Trixx screams holding on to Duusu for dear life.

“Nath knows what he’s doing” Duusu states trying to calm her friend down, but Trixx continues to scream even as Nathaniel jumps over several over hyper canines and manages to open several doors with his nose. He opens one that reveals a more Chinese inspired room with such an aura of calm that Duusu perks “this is the one Nath” she cries than breaks into a coughing fit. 

A Chinese crested dog sits alone in the room using a red pillow on the floor; its ears perk when Nath comes trotting in and gently places the kwami’s on the floor. Trixx takes several deep breaths to recover than turns to the little dog when it gave a small bark. 

“It’s him, the guardian” Trixx announces, he zips over to Duusu and holds her up in front of the guardian. “Great guardian you have to help Duusu, she’s sick” Trixx pleads and Nathaniel joins in with a whine, the puppy eyes working a little too well now.

The Chinese dog stands up to sniff the kwami, than he gave a small woof and trotted over to a suitcase pushed off to the side. He points to the suitcase and barks again at Trixx; the kwami gets the message and proceed to open the case and pull out a small gong. Nath came over to assist him in moving the gong over to Duusu, now using the pillow as a resting place. Master Fu took the mallet in his mouth and gave the gong a good hit. Than he sat on his back legs and closes his eyes. Nath lays down watching the dog concentrate on the little bird in front of them. Trixx was even quiet as the Master worked, he gave the gong another hit and puts his front paws over Duusu. Once that’s done he gives a small bark and nudges Duusu with his nose, Duusu slowly opens her eyes and smiles at Nathaniel. 

Duusu flies up and does a loop in the air before jumping into Nathaniel’s fluffy head, Nath whines in excitement and his tail smacks against the floor. Master Fu looks up at Trixx and gives another bark, Trixx scratches behind his head.

“You’re right I should get back to Allllllll….All of my chosen, ha, ha wouldn’t want to find just half of her now” Trixx recovers with an embarrassed laugh, “I’d better get going…nice see you Duusu, and your cutie pie holder”. With that the fox gives a wink than phases out the window to where he had last seen his chosen. 

“Good old Trixx” Duusu chirps and floats in front of Nathaniel “Alright lets go get that akuma”. Nathaniel gives a bark of agreement, Duusu runs her nub though his fur and finds her miraculous tied around a blue bandana. “Miraculous is still there but can it be…”

She trails off as Nath gives two confident barks and she feels the pull of its activation “guess it can work” she chirps allowing herself to be dragged in. The costume had to be changed to fit Nath’s…condition; it was much smaller with the back feathers at half their normal size so he didn’t trip. The fans were also already summoned and attached to his front legs, with a flick they would open ready to create wind. Paon gives a bark goodbye to Master Fu and trots out the door, Fu sighs and walks in a circle several times before laying back on the pillow for a well-deserved nap. 

Trixx made it to the female’s dorm without incident, but as soon as he got in a giant mastiff dog came charging for him teeth ready to kill. Trixx screams and zips down the hall as the dog gave chase, he spots a human girl pushing past the poodles and Pomeranians and runs straight into her face with an audible slap. 

“Trixx there you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you” Alya cries pulling the terrified kwami off her face. “I didn’t even get to have breakfast before all this dog gone madness” Trixx smiles sheepishly knowing full well how grouchy Alya got without morning food.

“I was coming back, just wanted more of that gold in the private house” Trixx chirps making Alya roll her eyes and duck into the nearest room to get away from the constant barking. 

“Ladybug is already out there, she told me anyone who ate kibble cook’s food before she got akumantized becomes a mindless dog” Alya explains letting her kwami go and wiping some of the dog slobber off her jeans. 

“See, I helped you than” Trixx chirps only for Alya to roll her eyes, she decides to scold the trouble maker later and sends him into the miraculous. 

When Chat arrives at the spa he’s taken back by the dogs running amuck everywhere, he doesn’t even notice the spider slipping to hide behind his back as he approaches. Rena lands on the ground next to him and leaps into action pushing him out of the way of the next blast of energy directed at them.

“Hey Chat about time you got here, we got a bit of a problem” Rena says quickly as Kibble cook growls and heads off in another direction. 

“I see that, let’s go retriever that akumantized object” 

“I agree but we have another problem” Rena grabs his shoulder and holds out the bundle in her arms, a pug dressed like a ladybug panted and wagged its tail.  
Chat’s eyes widened “is that?” he doesn’t finish as Paon and Bee appear in front of them, Bee now transformed into a Chihuahua with the cutest little wings on her back. “I’m torn between finding this adorable and it being a problem” Chat admits and Lady-pug wiggles in Rena’s grip. 

“I don’t know where Carapace is, but we need to stop Kibble cook before everything goes to the dogs” Rena stated and Paon and Bee bark in agreement.

Lancelot rushes to Oma’s office carrying a small red yorkie when Kibble cook notices him and charges towards them. She zaps him using a darkened whisk and smirks as his body is swallowed by a bright light, when it fades Lancelot blinks and sets the dog down. Kibble cook looks at her whisk confused then slaps it and zaps him again, Lancelot’s eyes widen catching on to the trick and shifts into his wolf form. The akuma smirks satisfied and starts gathering some of the bigger dogs to do her bidding, the butterfly mask appearing in front of her face for a moment. 

Lady-pug somehow summons her lucky charm and a dog whistle lands on her head, she picks it up in her mouth and hands it to Rena. Lady-pug then turns to Paon and barks twice, Paon seems to understand and leaps off to the rooftop of the nearest building, Bee following close behind. Finally she turns to Chat who was still trying not to grin widely at the puppy directing the team, and gets him to carry her into position. 

Kibble cook jumps back when a flying Chihuahua zips in front of her face, barking wildly and showing a fearsome set of teeth for such a tiny thing. “You want a treat little bee?” the akuma hisses pulling out a cookie and throwing it at Bee. Bee yelps as the cookie hits her on the head “ha serves you right you filthy mutt” she throws her head back to laugh.

The laugh is short lived as Paon sneaks up behind her and gives her rear a good chomp, she screams and starts spinning trying to get the fluffy dog off. Her dog army’s ears perk and then race into the restaurant, Kibble cook finally throws Paon off and chases after them. 

Inside the building Rena sits on the serving table holding the dog whistle in her hands, she flies to the ceiling to avoid the dogs and gives it another blow. The dogs go nuts trying to silence the whistle but are unable to reach it. Kibble cook attempts to zap her only for the hero to disappear in a cloud of smoke, “You can’t hide forever fox, my dogs will sniff you out” she growls. 

“That’s what I’m counting on, season’s greeting fellow canines” the real Rena cries kicking open the door to the kitchen and activating a large fan behind her, the thousands of herbs and seasoning in piles in front of it blowing into the akuma’s face and the dogs. While Kibble cook is coughing Chat pounces from the ceiling lights and grabs the whisk out of her hands, sliding into the kitchen before she could chase him. Rena slams the door and leans on the counter, “and that’s how it’s done” she chirps. The counter sinks down a little and she stumbles to regain her balance, not noticing the French bulldog on the other side of the room falling into a trapdoor that opened up underneath him. 

“We can handle any barking mad akuma” Chat adds giving Rena a fist bump and cracking open the whisk, Lady-pug swings her yo-yo and catches the akuma as easily as she could do with hands. Although her usual speech is replaced with a bit of barking, Rena throws the whistle into the air and thousands of ladybugs appear and begin their job. They surround Lady-pug and she reappears human and wipes her suit off. “As cute as you look as a pug, the original is always my pre-furred look” Chat purrs giving Ladybug’s hand a kiss, she rolls her eyes and smiles at him. 

“I see what the problem was; you got your recipes mixed up with Lancelot’s” Oma states looking at the cookbook her cook had been using, Lancelot grins embarrassed and takes the troublesome book from the cook. 

 

Nino groans as he gets to his feet, he leaned on the cool wall next to him and tries to steady his vision. He was in a tunnel of some sort, lit by old fashioned lamps that turned on as he walked by them. Water dripped from the ceiling and puddles soaked his shoes. Nino laughed sarcastically to himself, it was like a sewer. 

Footsteps are heard behind him and Nino turns around only for a silver feather to brush by his face, cutting his cheek as it zipped by. Nino jumps back and lands on his butt, his attacker stepping out of the shadows to reveal his helmeted face. He lifts his arms into the air and snaps them forward; a gust of wind is created and causes the lights to break. Nino yelps and starts running down the tunnel, his attacker giving chase. 

What better place to unleash your inner potty mouth than the sewers, Nino concludes as he drops more f bombs than actual bombs in WW2, his attacker corners him in a part of the tunnel that had collapsed, Nino risks his neck by standing right by a rock and letting the figure swing a winged arm at him. Its wing gets caught in the rock when Nino ducks at the last second, “Wayzz, could really use you now dude” Nino cries racing down the next tunnel. 

 

“What do you mean you can’t find him” Ladybug says watching the turtle kwami zip around the room, her miraculous gives a final cry and Marionette appears after a flash of red light still in her pajamas. They were back in her room and Wayzz looked about ready to have a panic attack, Tikki munches on her cookie while they pondered where his holder could be. “Can you just tell me who he is? I might be able to find him easier” Marionette offers only for Wayzz to shake his head. 

“Too dangerous” he mutters, Marionette sighs and peeks out the window, the restaurant was now flooded with people. Marionette groans when her stomach growls demanding food, she sighs then spots Lancelot walking by the building. She calls down to him and the mute man nods and disappears into the building, a minute later he knocks on the door. 

“Lancelot I need a favor” Marionette says as soon as he stepped in “one of my friends has gone missing and I need your uh…nose to help us out”. Lancelot tilts his head to the side then shrugs and transforms into his wolf form. Wayzz brings out a spare of the red cap Nino wore and hoped Marionette wouldn’t recognize it, luckily Marionette was more concerned at the moment with stealing some of the chocolate bars in Alya’s bag to settle her stomach. Lancelot gives it a sniff then begins to find the scent; Tikki recharges and Marionette transforms into Ladybug once more and follows Lancelot.

“Don’t worry Carapace, we’re coming” she whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Rena finally appeared in the show yay, the only thing I wasn't thrilled about was Ladybug knowing her identity right from the start. Wrecks some of the fun in my opinion. And I figured Rena would only be able to use her illusion once but I really liked the illusion Alya idea so its a little different here. 
> 
> And our villain now has a name, or at lest a nickname.  
> That awful moment when a part of a deleted scene is missed from editing, whoops:(


	20. Cue the epic montage music

Chapter 20 Cue the epic montage music  
Nino gasped for breath leaning against the wall, he had ran though the tunnels at complete random to lose the armoured creature and it appears to have worked for the moment. He didn’t hear the metal clangs from its boots, only the dripping of water from above. Without Wayzz he had no way to transform and defend himself, and he had no idea where he was. He closed his eyes as a breeze cools against his overheated body, then he snaps them open. Wind in a tunnel like this could mean only one thing, it was coming from outside. Carefully he follows the breeze, slowly so his feet didn’t slide off the wet rocks and make a loud sound. 

He froze like a deer when the scraping of metal reaches his ears, his hand slides against the wall and a small click is heard. Nino gulps as the tunnel is lit in a faint black light, now able to see his attacker with his back to him for the moment. The wings against his arms created small sparks as it dragged against the wall, making a god awful sound. Nino took a step back slowly, if he could hide behind the corner maybe he could get away. 

Nino curses softly as the other’s voice booms, he spoke neither French nor German but something far ancient. The figure turns to glare at him from within his helmet, again he spoke in the strange language but this time his patience was strained.

“I don’t know what you’re saying dude” Nino yelps backing up as the other stalked towards him, the black prince began to chant in his strange tongue and grabbed Nino’s arm. Nino flinched and closed his eyes bracing for the attack, but instead a warm feeling comes from his arm. He opens his eyes and gasps; his arm was covered by some sort of tattoo. 

It was tribal-like in design, green waves covered his forearm and his hand had a design exactly like his miraculous when activated. As the warmth spread so did the tattoo, the glow making it visible under his shirt. When the Prince speaks Nino just stares at him blankly, praying Wayzz would find him before he was sushi. 

“You are not him” the Prince concludes switching to familiar French, he dropped Nino’s arm and the tattoo vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The purple in his eyes flashed then faded until Nino could no longer see his eyes in the dark. The prince took a few steps back as if unsure of his next action; “you will not leave these tunnels alive” he spits but doesn’t move. 

“Listen dude you said so yourself I’m not…whoever you’re looking for so why don’t you let me go and I won’t tell anyone I saw you” Nino bumps against the wall behind him and feels a crack not far from his position, large enough it had to be a small tunnel. 

“You should know better than to address a Prince by dude” was the immediate hiss; Nino cowered as the Prince took a step forward. 

“Forgive me…your highness?” Nino quickly plays along bowing his head, while doing so he peeks to his left and spots the crack in the wall. It looked deep enough he could slip in and get away without this Prince being able to follow with those wings. 

The exposed half of the Prince’s face broke into a smirk, “you are forgiven this once, it’s not like you have long to live”. He took two steps toward Nino and Nino steps to the side till he’s right next to the crack, he had to make an effort not to glance at it and give away what he was going to do. 

“I get that your highness and I’m sure you’ll do it easily but um, can I have a last request?” Nino pleads smiling nervously; thankfully the Prince stops and tilts his head in confusion. “I…uh read on the Lady Blog about your battle with Queen Bee and I’d love to see just how uh powerful those wings of yours are against rocks “ 

“This sounds like a trick”

“Oh it’s not a trick your highness, I mean what could I do against you?” Nino nervously laughed “you’re far too fast and strong for me to get away, plus you must be too smart to fall for any trick little ole me could think up” 

“You are correct” the Prince purred proudly throwing out his arms, the black light didn’t show much but Nino could tell despite dragging against rock the wings would easily slice his head off. “Very well, I will demonstrate to you what I plan to do once I face that insect again” he turns away from Nino and shifts into black smoke, a large stone a few feet by them shatters into slices like it was a giant watermelon. The prince reforms and grins at his handy work, the smile drops when water sprouts from the wall. Followed by another and another, the Prince turns to run but can’t get far before the entire wall gives way and a tidal wave washes down the tunnel. The prince shifts into smoke and flees to the nearest exit, Nino forgotten.

Nino pushes his way down the crack; he feels his hand bleed from the wall digging into it but keeps going. The roar of the Prince right behind him makes him move faster, stumbling once the crack opens and he falls to the ground. His body lands on a switch of some kind and the crack closes shut, preventing the Prince from finding his escape route. 

Nino relaxes for a moment getting to his feet, ears straining in the sudden silence. He puts his ear on the wall trying to hear if the Prince was nearby and pulls back when the cold stone has a small waterfall dripping down it, these tunnels were as wet as most caves but the water didn’t drip down this quickly. Panic returns as he looks down to see water collecting around his feet and quickly getting deeper. Nino slaps the walls around him and discovers it to be sealed from all sides except up, like an underground well. The cold water reaches his knees and he has to force himself to take slow breaths, “RENA, LADYBUG, SOMEONE HELP ME” he puts his hands in a megaphone like position and shouts above hoping someone would hear him. 

 

Lancelot stopped at a mouth of a cave surrounded by rock piles that once blocked it, the faint scent of the turtle holder coming from inside. His ears perked sensing danger; no normal creature would have broken the seal to these caves. Behind him he could hear Ladybug calling members of her team for backup but it does little to sooth the wolf. He lets out a low howl that startles the bug, so he wags his tail in apology.

Chat closes his baton and goes to slide it onto his belt, with a sigh he pulls out a wheel of cheese from the little refrigerator in his room and stuffs it in his back pocket. It was amazing Plagg had held on this long but he didn’t want to be unprepared in case he gave out soon. A loud gag breaks him out of his thoughts; he turns to see the giant arachnid wiggling on the floor with a smudge of cheese on her body. 

“Are you trying to poison me kitty chaos? This is vile” she hisses wiping the dairy product off and trying to regain her dignity. 

Chat laughs at her distress “Sorry forgot you were back there” he chirps sitting down on the floor. He picks some dirt out from under his claws and his cheerful expression drops 

“so I think it’s time you held up your end of the deal”.

The spider growls softly then relaxes “Fine, the next attack should be in London England” she spits and begins to crawl onto his lap, Chat moves back and she scrambles to stay up. “Can’t tell you what it will be but I hear it’s quite the show” she adds wiping some cheese from the hairs on her legs. 

Chat leans forward “and you’re sure of this?” he asks twirling a shortened baton in his hands, the weapon lit up with Ladybug’s “hurry up” signal. With his lady getting impatient Chat had no choice but to pick the spider up and shove her into his other pocket, her gags of disgust making the cat chuckle as he heads off. 

Lancelot wagged his tail happily as Oma made her way over to them, her stick gripped tightly in her hands. Rena and Chat had already arrived, Bee on her way claiming to need to fix her hair first. “Lancelot I hope you have a reason for calling me all this way, I have tons of spells to update” she huffs sitting down on a stump next to the cave, “and why did you open the tunnels?”

Lancelot whines and does a little doggie dance “what do you mean you didn’t open it” Oma demands tapping her stick impatiently. 

“We just found it like this” Ladybug joins in wanting to be part of the conversation, Oma scowls in thought but remains quiet.

“Very well, if you must go in be careful. Those tunnels are old and full of traps, I’m afraid neither Lancelot or I can join you” 

Rena raises a brow at this “Why not?”

“Many years ago I used what little power I had to protect these lands…by doing so I sealed my soul to it. If I leave both the land and I shall die” Oma explains pushing up one of her sleeves to reveal a tattoo that looked like a long thorny vine. Lancelot bumps her hand with his nose to get her to smile again, “and Lancelot made a vow to never leave my side” she says bending down to hug the wolf. 

“Oh” is all Ladybug can think to say, a moment passes in an awkward silence. Bee popping out of the trees to land by the group was startling but what Ladybug needed, “We’ll be careful Mme Blutmond come on guys”. She grabs Rena’s hand since she was closest and has the fox be her eyes as they head down the tunnel. Chat slumps in a joking fashion but nobody pays him any mind, he’s last to enter when a scream comes from his back pocket. 

The spider falls out and crawls away from the cave, smoke coming from parts of her body. “Do you not know what demon symbols are you nincompoop?” she cries smacking the charred skin off. Chat makes a confused sound so she points to a symbol carved on both sides of the caves mouth, she grumbles and freezes as a warm breath comes from above her. Lancelot pulls back and bares his teeth in a low growl, “don’t even think about it, I’m under his protection” she snaps regaining her attitude. 

“You came back” Oma starts softly “You managed to get out and you came back with help no less”. The spider doesn’t move, for once she didn’t understand her actions and it threw her off. 

“I need to get to my team…would you mind” Chat gestures to the arachnid and Oma nods and shoos him off, Chat runs into the cave without another word. 

“You okay bug?” Rena asked as they walked down the tunnel, Ladybug had stayed awful quiet as they walked down the tunnel. Ladybug let Rena lead her down the endless tunnels, pausing only to mark parts of the tunnels with the rocks. Bee flew up ahead using her wings to light the path and Chat was at the back ears perked for any sound.  
“I’m fine Rena, just hope we can find him” Ladybug admits fiddling with her yo-yo, “wait do you hear something?” Wayzz leaps out from her shoulder and zips down the tunnel, not pausing to wait even when everyone calls for him. 

 

Nino spat out some water and kicked to keep his head up, but his body was freezing in the cold and it was making it hard to keep moving. His hands reached for the top to try and find anything to pull him up, his hand banged against an iron grate rusted from age. Desperately he hits it with his fist and gasps for air, a rock bangs into his leg and he could feel the water begin to move under his body. 

“I’m here Nino, we need to transform now” Wayzz’s voice was music to Nino’s ears, the green light flashed like a flare at sea. The group sees it afar and rush to it, Carapace uses the extra energy gained from the costume to grab the metal and hold on against the rapid waters. 

The group rush over to the hole and Rena is first to act by grabbing his arm though the metal, Chat begins to summon his power but is stopped by Bee. She bends down and pulls the old metal off as easily as opening a pop can, Chat shrugs and “helps” her move it to the side. The heavy grate bangs loudly against the floor, echoing like thunder.

Rena and Carapace yelp as the current picks up strength and pulls them both under the water; Ladybug grabs hold of Rena’s leg before it vanished into the darkness. Chat and Bee quickly are by her side trying to pull their teammates out, eventually both fox and turtle collapse on the somewhat dry land and cough out water.

“Thanks dudes” Carapace coughs out, licking his lips and tasting salt. Either he was bleeding or the water was salty. 

“Thank goodness we found you, Wayzz was so worried” Ladybug chirps and waves her hand around trying to find him, accidentally smacking him in the jaw. “Bee I could use some light here” 

“Sorry” Bee says from the other side of the tunnel “Just trying to call Paon” she admits using her wings to create a little light. After the third ring Paon picks up, although Bee couldn’t exactly see him in the darkness. “Where are you Paon you missed the rescue” she scolds the bird, ignoring her heart jumping at the way he chuckled. 

“I’m trying to find my way, I think I’m lost” he admits walking down the tunnel dragging his hand across the wall. “Lady out front told me you were in here but didn’t specify which way” 

“Be careful dude” Carapace blurts standing up and switching on his communicator, unlike the rest of the crew his was attached to his wrist so he could use it while blocking with the shield. “There’s someone else down here, and he isn’t friendly” he adds squinting to see Paon. 

“Someone else” Paon echo’s suddenly very aware how similar the cave was to the vision, water drips behind him and he jumps. He summons the other fan just in case he needed to fight, although being almost blind in the dark it wouldn’t be a fair fight. 

Rena fiddles with her flute for a moment and a blinker shows up on its screen, “stay where you are bird boy we’re going to get you” she orders. Paon whimpers uneasy but does as he told; he sits down on a rock and topples to the floor. The rock behind him clicks and sinks into the ground mechanically. 

The group had only just started following the tracker when a loud bang comes from behind them, “Paon what did you just do?” Ladybug cries then screams as a wave of water scoops her and the gang up and thrust them down a particular tunnel, Chat grabs hold of her and Bee while Rena holds onto Carapace. The water moves too fast for anyone to do anything but hold on. In less than a minute Chat spies Paon up ahead, the water was too fast for even the bird to escape. 

Ladybug had never been to Disneyland but if this was what splash mountain and space mountain was like if they combined then she never wanted to go. Suddenly sunlight appears at the end of the tunnel, in less than a second the group finds themselves in the air and falling into an ocean. 

Bee opens her eyes and they burn underwater, she panics and tries to find the surface flailing like a bee would when their wings got wet. A hand grips her waist and she gasps at the sight in front of her, Ariel was real! The red headed mermaid calmly brings her to the surface; Bee coughs out the salt water and wipes her eyes. Ariel was still there, but her hair was a lot shorter than the movie and she wore a blue mask around her eyes. 

“Bee you okay?” Paon asks starting to swim them over to shore where the others were waiting, Bee blinked realizing who she was looking at and gave a goofy laugh in reply. 

“Any idea where we are” Rena asks once everyone had gathered around in a circle, their suits keeping them somewhat warm. Rena shakes herself off like a dog would and her limp ponytail rises up with a “poof”, Bee has a tinge of envy having to settle with her hair drying out from the saltwater. 

“Well based off the direction we were shot and the ocean I’d guess we’re at the coastline of Germany or the Netherlands” Chat guessed smacking his head to get the water out of his ears. The group gives a collective sigh, what a day this was turning out to be. 

 

“Honestly Gabriel I try to do a simple favor to you and you go and create an akuma outside the plan” Nathalie snaps as she paces across the hotel rooms floor. The designer in question ignores her as he continues to write on a slip of paper, a handful of giant moths settled into blankets scattered around the room. One cuddled into the giant man with his hands and feet bound together by ropes, he looked bored as the villains bickered. When he had noticed Nathalie and Mr. Agreste disappearing during the day or night with no explanation he had chalked it up to them doing the rated M. But no, they were off being super villains. He didn’t get paid enough for this.

Gabe finishes writing and looks up at Nathalie with a cold glare “oh I’m sorry but I know the difference between my son and his bodyguard” he snaps thankful the giant man hadn’t bothered to escape. “Not to mention the, oh- so perfect corrupt going after the wrong person” he adds to fuel her flames, Nooroo whimpered on his desk. 

Nathalie rolls her eyes and calls a large moth to her hands “you’re not going to awaken another corrupt are you? We’re running low on those moths” Gabe states standing up from his chair and grabbing some rope from a plastic bag. “Now are we going to do this or not?”

“Of course Gabriel” she purrs and gestures to another figure standing obediently on the other side of the room. Nathalie puts Gabe on his knees and ties his hands behind his back; once she’s satisfied she picks up his phone and gets it ready. 

 

The group finally reach a town after what felt like hours of walking, complaints and comments remained unsaid as they sat down on rocks or sand. Rena is the first one up when her phone goes off, her normal phone. She takes it out thankful for the life proof case and nearly opens it out of habit, but she caught Ladybug’s glare and sets it back in her pocket. She didn’t want to look like she snooped though Alya’s things after all. Since it was a Lady- Blog message for Alya to agree to put on her blog Rena went to her flute’s phone to sign in and check the message. At first she thinks the picture is a joke but then she finds it’s a video. “Guys check the Lady-blog”

“Can’t it wait?” Bee mumbles pulling her face out of the sand, she was never going to do a seaweed wrap again. 

“Now” Rena snaps and everyone is quick to do as she said, Chat opens the blog and his blood runs cold. It was his father sitting on his knees with his arms tied behind his back,  
Hawk moth stood behind him with his cane unsheathed and the swords blade aimed at his throat. His finger was frozen on the play button but he heard the message from Rena’s phone. 

“I have a message for the miraculous team” his father starts voice sounding strained as if he hadn’t had a drink of water for a long time “Hawk moths patience is low, you must surrender the miraculous”. Chat walks over and looks at the moving screen on Rena’s device almost in a trance, Gabe sucked in his breath as Hawk moth’s blade nicked at his throat. His glasses had been knocked off but somehow he still gave off an intimidating energy, he glared at Hawk moth than at the camera. He gritted his teeth than spoke “You have till midnight to comply, Hawk moth’s partner Masquerade will meet you at the largest clock in London” Gabe closes his eyes and sighs. “Get the wax out of your ears Madame Ladybug” he hisses then the video ends.

“Madame” Ladybug echo’s in confusion, “what the heck makes Mr. Agreste think I’m married?

“The part about the wax is weird too, and a new partner is just what I needed to hear today” Bee adds throwing her head back to pout. 

“You okay Chat? You’re looking a little pale” Rena asks and Chat snaps his head up, quickly trying to hide the fear that bubbled in his gut. He had long suspected it but now it hit him like a sack of bricks, Hawk moth knew who he was. When Paon went dark Hawk moth saw though his eyes, and now his father would pay the price. Why else would he threaten him instead of anyone else in Paris? 

Paon grabs Chat’s shoulder gently, “He’s probably just overwhelmed after everything that happened already” Chat nods along and faces away from the team. “So what’s the plan LB?” Paon chirps to get the attention off the cat.

Ladybug stopped her pacing to address the group, “I feel like he was trying to give us a clue with his last line, but what could he have meant?” she says twirling her yo-yo in thought. 

Chat lights up “Madame, Wax, I know what he’s talking about” he announces and opens his baton to search up the place. He shows the group a picture of a large blue cylinder building “Madame Tussaunds Wax Museum “.

 

“You sure you got this, guys?” Ladybug asks for like the thirtieth time, the group had agreed to split into two groups. Rena, Bee and Carapace would head to London’s Big Ben while Ladybug, Chat and Paon would take on the museum. 

“Relax my best bug friend I’ll keep those two out of trouble” Bee chirps and Ladybug rolls her eyes, not what she meant. “And besides I’ll honey trap whoever this partner of Hawk moth’s is, you just worry about Mr. Agreste” Bee adds than closes the conversation.

“Bee’s right and the sooner we get Mr. Agreste safe the sooner we can join them” Chat says as the three lands on top of London’s biggest wax museum. Paon slides down to the white part of the building and pulls up an entrance from the roof, allowing the other two inside. With time of the essence it was better for them to break in and apologize later than wait for the staff to come back and open the place in the morning. 

Ladybug rides her yo-yo down to floor headfirst, looking a little too much like another superhero for copyright’s comfort. Her shoes gently touch the floor followed by the boys sliding or gliding down. Eyes seem to stare at them from every direction, wax dummies of history were everywhere in the darkened rooms. 

“Stay close, Hawk moth could be hiding anywhere” Ladybug ordered clicking her flashlight on, she thought ahead this time to have some sort of light for her and Paon. Chat nodded and Paon swallowed nervously, he clicked on his light and yelped at the soulless eyes of Madonna. 

“You alright Paon” Chat asked noticing the bird was trailing behind, Paon slowly walked past the wax modals of the royal family eyes trained on them.

“I don’t like mannequins” Paon snapped under his breath, Chat chuckled as he bumps into Prince Philip and flaps his arms like a startled bird. 

Ladybug flashes her light on a room and gasps “boys, come look at this”. The boys follow Ladybug to find several mannequins of….Ladybug.  
It was surreal, the hall of hero’s contained figures from time all dressed in spots. Joan of Arc stood posed with her sword drawn and a hardened expression. A Japanese ninja with the name Tentomushi had her arms crossed with her yo-yo gripped tightly in her left hand. An Amazonian queen had a mischievous grin as she stood proudly in the darkened room, her name card read Hippolyta. A woman dressed as a musketeer was also on the display, a black woman with a costume most similar to modern Ladybug, their names lost to time. Chat gave an excited cheer seeing the other Chat Noir’s on the other side of the room. The one opposite the amazon had a large lion like costume; his name plate read “possibly Hercules”. The one opposite Joan had a solemn look in his marble eyes, perhaps the same look he had when she was set aflame. Further down the hall contained copies of images from dedicated historians and theories on what they might represent. Finally a sign in front of a red curtain promised the reveal of the currant Ladybug and Chat Noir in a few weeks’ time.

“This is incredible” Ladybug breaths eyes trained upon the Joan mannequin, Paon noticed a separate hall and followed it while the others were distracted. This one was obviously closed to the public based off the state the hall was in, papers covered the floor and white sheets covered each statue. Paon grabs hold of the nearest sheet and gently takes it off, the marble eyes of Queen Bee stare back at him. He smirks slightly spotting the errors right away, the statue’s hair was too short and her eyes were just slightly off. The next one of Rena Rouge had the printed Volpina tag still, which was crossed out with a note saying “update name”. There was even a Carapace statue but in its early stages, no colour or real details put on yet. Paon frowns at the last two covered by sheets, either they had gotten his height very wrong or there wasn’t a Paon Bleu under there.

With a deep breath he pulls the sheets off to reveal Hawk moth and Le Paon staring down at him. The Hawk moth mannequin had an akuma in his hand, the butterfly only half purple. His other hand rested on a cane glittering in the pale light. Le Paon stared coldly at the boy, her fan covered part of her face and the ends of the feathers glowed pink in the room. Paon bit back a growl, so this is what she looked like when she stole Duusu. 

“This looks like a good place for a super villain to hide” Chat’s voice breaks though Paon’s thoughts, he turns to Chat to find the cat poking at the walls to find a secret passage. It was enough to drop the bitter feelings brewing in his gut; Paon had to wonder if Chat knew about the secret passage in his own house. Ladybug came up to him and glanced at the super villain's statue’s, her eyes lingering on the polished face of Le Paon 

“Paon…” she starts but he brings a hand up with an apologetic smile, Ladybug doesn’t look convinced but drops the subject.

Chat presses the cane in Hawk moth’s hand and a door opens up behind the statue, “Ladies first” he chirps with a bow in Ladybug’s direction. Once Ladybug had entered the tunnel Chat wraps his arm around Paon to whisper “this has been bugging me for a while, do you think we should tell Ladybug we know each other’s identities?” 

“Are you crazy? She’d turn you into a fur coat and me into a hat” 

Chat dropped his arm and nodded “I know but it feels wrong ya know” he scratched behind his head. “Like we broke the first rule of being a super hero”

“Well I’m not telling” Paon hissed, glancing up ahead to see if Ladybug had noticed they stopped. They exchange a look realizing they had been left behind; they lean forward and take off in a sprint with their arms behind their back. 

“Chat, does that kitty nose of yours smell anything?” Ladybug stops walking and shoots the light behind her, “Boys?” she calls when no one appears behind her. She faces forward and bites back a scream when Chat appears in front of her suddenly, “holy crap Chat don’t do that”. Chat doesn’t say anything but moves his hand in a “come on” motion and starts walking down the hall. Ladybug hesitates but follows her partner down the dark hall.

“Ladybug” Chat calls quietly; the hall had split off in two directions. They take the left one and walk into the hall of USA presidents, but there was no Ladybug amongst the statues. The secret passage was nothing more than a shortcut. “God damn these are creepy” he adds passing George Washington who always looked like he had been forced to hear an awful pun. Paon makes a sound of agreement as he passes another and sets off a sound clip, causing the poor bird to nearly shoot though the roof in surprise. 

Chat bursts out laughing as the presidential speech continues to play, “I know politics can be scary Paon but calm down” he chirps going up to one and poking it several times ignoring the “do not touch” sign. “Not like these guys can hurt you” he adds stepping in front of the statue and placing his hands on his hips. His smile drops when a cold hand grabs his shoulder, the speech gets to its most self-proclaimed inspirational part as the mannequin flips Chat onto his back and stomps on his chest. Paon runs over to help but gets pulled back by the Barack Obama statue; he takes one look at its haunting eyes and lets out a scream. 

Ladybug stops as the shriek echoes throughout the building, “Chat wait that was Paon”. “Chat” turns around and shakes his head slightly, he begins to walk away but Ladybug grabs his hand “Chat we have to…” she trails off. Chat’s hand was hard and cold; he turns to her with the same cheeky look and shakes his head again. 

“You’re not Chat” Ladybug drops his hand and backs up, “Chat” stepped towards her. Those soulless eyes get her to grab her yo-yo and start to swing it, “stay back or I’ll-“ Ladybug cuts off as a strong pair of hands grab her from behind another pair throws a cloth sack over her head. 

“How dare you” Ladybug shouts stomping down on the foot of her captor, he makes no sound but let her escape his grasp. She rips off the sack and round house kicks the fake Chat, sending him crashing down the stairs. Ladybug than jumps and swings to higher ground as arrows start firing at her, she groans spotting the archers behind the attack. Hawk eye and Katniss Everdeen load their bows and fire once again. The lights in the room flash on and Ladybug is blinded for a moment, allowing Owl-man to swoop down and knock her into the wall. She recovers to slide away from his next attack and spots Mr. Agreste hidden away in the hulk buster armour, at least the fake Chat had brought her to the right place. With practiced aim she nabs Katniss and throws her into Hawk eye, sending the two into piles of life like body parts. Now she just had to get him out. 

 

“You know I had a nightmare about this once” Chat chirps as Paon throws Obama over his shoulders; he summons his fans and smacks Abraham Lincoln charging at them. Chat slices at his captor’s leg until Paon kicks him off, the mannequin stumbled off and both boys decide running was the best option. A hoard of US presidents behind them, they make it to a new room and force the large doors to close. The mannequin’s bang on the door as they back up hoping it would hold. Paon clenches his fans tightly. After a minute the banging stops, the mannequins must have left to circle around. The boys give a big sigh and land on their knees, taking a moment to process the situation. In good news they had found the building’s power room, a large switch on Chat’s left just begged to be flipped. He flips it and the room was flooded with light, Paon clicks his flashlight off and stores it somewhere in his costume. Chat’s baton starts to ring and he answers on the second ring, Paon peeking over his shoulder. 

“Boys get over to the comic book section, I assume you already know about the mannequins” Ladybug calls hanging on a wire. Something shoots at her and she’s forced to drop down, briefly showing the brightly lit room covered by superhero’s from all sorts of media. The line goes dead and Chat stands up with a burst of energy, no sense standing around when his lady and his father needed him. 

“The comic book section is on the other side of the building, it will take forever to get there with all these mannequins coming for us” Paon complained staring at a map on the wall, his eyes jumping between the you are here sticker and the section labeled comic books.

Whatever Chat was going to say is cut short by the door being smashed open, when the dust settles Jackie Chan struts over to them. Chat smirks and shakes out two earpieces from his baton, handing one to Paon. 

“Alright Paon” Chat starts as he clicks the phone off and sets the baton behind his shoulders, “ready to break some history?”

“Oh I was born to” Paon chirps and Chat smirks, both of them put in the device and it starts to play a song. It’s time for a montage. 

With perfect choreography Paon dodges Jackie’s side kick and trips him up from behind, Chat swings his baton at the head and it pops right off. Paon resists the urge to head bang as the guitar kicks in, they race to the next room. Immediately they have to slide to avoid Darth Vader’s light saber and Jack Sparrow’s sword. Chat pops his baton in two and swings the batons underneath the ankles of Lady Gaga and Katy Parry sending the mannequins of their rears. Paon snags Babe Ruth’s bat under his arm and kicks him hard enough that his arm snapped right off. He spins to knock down Shakira and her legs pop right off from the impact.

Paon dodges a punch by the Justin Bieber mannequin; Chat disarms Jack and sends him crashing into Snoop Dog. Darth prepares to strike a distracted Paon but gets blinded by Chat throwing his cape over his head. While he’s trying to get it off Paon sends his opponent into the now very real light saber, the hot weapon easily melting the wax. The boys jump over the dismembered mannequin parts to avoid the others coming in as they race into the next room, where Hello Kitty and Shrek charge them. Paon slides under Shrek and tears the fabric of the ogre’s pants, Chat has a time trying to get Kitty to stay still but manages to trip her up and send her into Zac Efron. 

The next hallway is blocked by both the beetles and the spice girls, both groups easily taken out by Paon using his back feathers for all they’re worth. Chat can’t help but dance somewhat as his song reaches the instrumental; his fancy footsteps letting him dodge a slow robotic swing from the terminator. Paon trips a charging Walt Disney into the robot before he could do any real damage, the music ends right as they approach the section labeled with the sign “Comic books”.

“Chat, Spider web” Ladybug calls throwing her yo-yo at her partner, with practiced ease Chat catches it and grabs part of the string and throws it back at her. They redo it several times creating a web of sorts with the string, following Ladybug’s lead they trap Owl-man charging them and subdue him by taking its limbs off. The yo-yo snaps back into Ladybug’s hand untangling itself like magic, “it’s another akuma, she can possess any mannequin”.

“Wax’s up with Hawk moth and creating so many akuma’s today?” Chat jokes as the trio jump away from a charging Hulk. 

“He needed a favour, and I was more than happy to assist after he brought my friends to life now I am the wax sculptor” a female voice comes out of the Hulk. Its eyes flash pink and the akuma leaps out of its skin, this akuma appeared made of dripping candle wax with eyes that glowed with an intense fire. She raises her arms and more comic book hero’s come out of the room ready to attack, “you won’t be saving Mr. Agreste and I’ll take your miraculous as a bonus”.

“I’d love to see you try” Ladybug countered throwing her yo-yo at the akuma’s head, Chat and Paon charge the mannequins. The akuma dodges the toy and sends Hulk towards her, Ladybug yelps but manages to send the green comic hero into a flame inspired hero, melting them both into piles of goo. Paon jumps up and slams down on the first mannequin, his attack blocked by its shield, he doesn’t get a chance to realise his mistake and he’s thrown across the room. The Captain America statue throws his shield at the bird, Paon ducks and it whizzes over his head, sailing right into the spider-man mannequin. Chat extends his baton into Iron man’s chest and sends him crashing into black widow behind him. He senses the next one behind him and spins to attack, coming face to face with the Black Panther.

“Oh my god I loved your movie” Chat squeals ducking the claws coming for his face, Ladybug’s yo-yo wraps around the bigger cat’s neck and snaps its head off with a powerful tug. The akuma growls and shoots off down the hall, her form dripping wax as she went. 

“Did anyone see an akumantized object” Ladybug gasps wiping sweat from her brow, Paon finishes off the Thor mannequin by slicing his fans across the wax until the figure could no longer stand. 

“I think I saw one of those sculpting tools behind her ear” Paon pants taking a seat on Thor’s chest, his stomach growled softly. He hadn’t eaten anything all day and now he was paying the price, Chat must have been hungry as well based off the longing looks he was giving a pizza advertisement on the floor. 

Ladybug doesn’t waste any time running back into the room and opening up the hulk buster armour, with a gasp Mr. Agreste falls out. The man gave her a look that could be gratitude if you looked at it on an angle, namely closing your eyes and pretending. Ladybug checks him for injuries while Chat races in and eagerly gets the man to his feet. 

“I knew you’d be able to figure it out” Mr. Agreste purrs his eyes flashing with pride, “but there’s still that akuma” he adds as the coldness settles in. even surrounded by mannequins Mr. Agreste stood out in his statue like stance, Chat offers to help him outside and he agrees after a pause. 

“Such a loving man isn’t he” Paon deadpans and a hand grabs his shoulder, he stretches his neck to see Ladybug behind him. A small smile on her shiny face as she towered over him, “do you think when he gets mad his hair pops up like a cockatiel?”

Ladybug didn’t answer him, but the one checking the map on the other side of the room shouts a warning. Paon’s eyes go wide and the Ladybug above him smacks him across the face with her elbow, the real Ladybug throws her yo-yo around the fake and pulls her towards her swinging kick. The rather new statue doesn’t stand a chance and falls apart on impact. “Time for some real fun” the akuma laughs floating above the Ladybug and Chat Noir’s coming towards them. Wax jumps into the Joan of Arc mannequin and pulls her sword out of its sheath, “ATTACK!”

Paon pops his jaw back into place and spins to trip the nearest past Chat Noir mannequin, the past one with the lion head jumps over the feathers and slams down on Paon’s chest. He takes a swing with the fan only for Hercules to knock it away and begin a series of deadly punches towards the bird. Ladybug grabs the sword from Joan using her yo-yo and catches it with her free hand; she swoops low and catches the knee of the amazon. She slices though the leg but Hippolyta grabs Ladybug by her pig tail and sends her onto her back. Joan takes her sword and goes to grab one of the earrings, Ladybug struggling to break free from the powerful mannequins. 

“Hey you guys are made from the highest quality wax right” Chat’s voice booms from behind them, Joan and the others stop to stare at him. Hercules stopped his assault of Paon’s face long enough for the bird to slip out and try to stable his vision. Chat pulls out a lighter and a can of hairspray he found somewhere; “be a shame if ya melted” the mannequins jump back as he creates a makeshift flamethrower. Joan’s face melts slightly and the akuma jumps out of her, putting the mannequin back on autopilot. 

Ladybug runs away from the chaos until she’s a safe distance away, “Lucky Charm” she shouts and her power hands her a thermostat. She looks at it confused while Paon crawls away from Hercules readying his fist to pound his feathers to dust, he grabs blindly at what he thought was the fan behind him and swings it as hard as he could. A blast of lightning comes out of his hand and Hercules melts away so quickly he burns and creates a little smoke. The fire alarm goes off while Paon discovers he grabbed Mjolnir instead of his fan. 

Ladybug flinches as the loud fire alarm blares though the building, she scans the room and a plan quickly forms. “Chat drop the flames, Paon get the water sprinklers going” she orders racing off down a particular hall. 

“I thought this was working rather well” Chat calls only for his hairspray to give one last hiss and stop spraying, the flames end and multiple Ladybug’s glare at him with the wax dripping from their faces. Chat’s ears press down on his head, “uh…sorry ladies, but there’s only one Ladybug for me” he yelps pouncing out of their reach. Paon grabs his fan and shoots up to the ceiling to hit each sprinkler and send a steady stream of water down on the battle, 

Ladybug steps into the basement and starts moving the dials of the air conditioners till her thermostat read far into the negative Celsius. 

Chat and Paon can see their breath as they dodge the mannequins and the angry hands of the akuma, soon they can see their breath though the pounding water. Paon shivers from the cold and readies for another attack from Wax only for nothing to happen, the water stops as Ladybug struts back in. She plucks the darkened tool from the akuma whose wax had hardened to the point where she could no longer move. With a flick of the wrist she catches the escaping butterfly and sends her miraculous cure to clean the damage. The mannequins were repaired and placed back in their displays, and the boys were dried off and their wounds repaired. Wax falls to the floor and she transforms back into an older woman who looked rather confused, Ladybug calls for the “Pound it” before turning back to the victim. 

“Ladybug, Chat Noir…I’m sorry if this is about your mannequins I wanted to contact you for the grand reveal but I couldn’t find a way to contact you” the woman explains getting to her feet.

“Do you know what caused you to be akumantized?” Ladybug asks taken back by the cheerful but tired person, the woman adjusts her glasses and sighs.

“I was very stressed for time; I couldn’t get the details right on Chat Noir and my boss was running out of patience” 

“I’m sure he’ll be fine with waiting a little longer if we show up when the wax mannequins are finished, to see the miraculous team would draw a lot of people” Ladybug threw her arms around her boys and gave them a small squeeze. “Especially if it’s the whole team” she adds with a not so subtle look to Paon. 

Paon doesn’t say anything as they help the woman out of the building, she didn’t apologise for the lack of Paon Bleu statue or even make mention of it. Instead she chattered away to Chat to get details about his costume she could add to her design such as which finger his ring was on and so forth. There was no sign of Hawk moth so after a small chat with police that had gathered they took off into the early morning. Mr. Agreste refused any help from police and disappeared from the scene, his assistant came by to explain he would be going into hiding to protect himself and his son. She also made it clear that if his son was sighted she was to be notified straight away. 

Ladybug calls Bee’s Rena’s and Carapace’s communicators several times before worry starts to set in, she tries to assure herself that perhaps they had dropped their transformation after defeating Masquerade but something felt very wrong. Her own miraculous starts its countdown and she has to land somewhere to refuel her kwami, ordering the boys to keep going and she’d meet up later.

The two land on Big Ben at a courter to three in the morning and find little to no damage to the building. Paon gasps when his eyes pick up a green shell on the ground; he flies down to find Carapace on his gut gasping in pain.

“Carapace what happened, where’s the girls?” Chat cries helping the turtle to sit up, there was no visible damage to his body other than the hallow look in his eyes. 

“They…knew you wouldn’t be here Chat, it was a trap” Carapace starts trying to get to his feet but hadn’t the energy. Amazing that his miraculous had held on for so long “she took the girls…I don’t know where” he gasped before he slumped and Chat had to grab him before he hit his head on the road. 

Paon paced as Chat tries to revive Carapace, his vision hadn’t mentioned any of this, what good were the stupid visions if they didn’t mention stuff like this. His frustration continues to boil while a large moth watching from afar seems satisfied and takes off unseen by either hero. 

 

“Are you happy now Hawk moth, your identity is safe and I grabbed two potential guardians for us to test” Masquerade gestures to the two unconscious girls being tied up and blindfolded. Mr. Agreste frowns at the two but nods; he fixes his tie and with a flash of purple Hawk moth stands in the massive room. 

“Now do not call me anything other than Hawk moth” he warns resting his cane behind his shoulders, Masquerade laughs but agrees to behave. She happily flies over to greet the returning large moth and listens to its buzzing closely not allowing Hawk moth to hear. “I hope I get to hear this part of the plan” he snaps loudly, unknowingly causing Rena’s fake ears to twitch. 

“Well Hawkey you’re right about the moths, we do need more. So I believe it’s time I awaken my next corrupt to go catch us some more energy-“ she sings while a purple light glows from her eyes, Hawk moth stiffened as the room seemed to drop several degrees. Rena slowly turned her hands and freed a finger; thankful Trixx never listened when she asked to remove the retractable claws on her suit after that one time where she got it stuck in the flute. She’s starts to work away at the rope careful to be quiet as the villain continued, “Go awaken the siren, and bring her here first. Once I’m done I’m sure she’d love little mermaids to serve her”. Rena quickens her movements then freezes as a pair of hands grab her shoulders “let’s start with you little fox” Masquerade hisses and begins to chant in a language Rena didn’t understand, Rena was starting to wish she had stayed in bed today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you tell names are not my specialty? I got Master Fu's name wrong up until now when I typed it and realized it wasn't right. and I don't know if it's La Paon or Le Paon but I'm sure I got both in here and sheesh I'm a mess. Regardless got this chapter done and only had to rewrite the scenes three times.  
> Now we're in England the first place I've actually been so next chapters gonna be fun.


	21. A big splash in London

Rena flinched as a warm feeling spreads over her body, starting at where her miraculous sat. Her body involuntarily relaxed as it reached her arms and shoulders, the heat crawled to her ears and Masquerade makes a noise of confusion. The villain gave a command in her strange tongue but the fox remained still even though her mind begged to get it to work on the ropes again. 

“Is that normal?” Hawk moths voice sounds like it’s coming from far away, had the blindfold not been there she would have seen Masquerade shake her head and give a shrug. She watches him open a window to allow a cloud to slip its way inside. She makes her way over to Bee and repeats the process, after the third chant the magic revealed itself. Designs in the shape of an insect’s wings formed over Bee’s arms and across her forehead like a crown, the costume did nothing but blur the lines somewhat. The hero let out a moan as the spell took effect, like with the fox her design was altered on some parts for her it was her wrist. Green roundish magic mixed with the yellow, Masquerade gives her command but receives nothing in return. She drops her hands in frustration and the magic disappeared, she takes a step back to allow her corrupt access. The corrupt was an ex rock star, she was at the tip of her career when she suffered a nervous breakdown and made a perfect target for a blackened soul strike. Her form had gained a fish-like appearance, an angler fish head and blue skin were the biggest head turners. Her dress flowed and shimmered in invisible water and clouds swirled around her feet as she walked. The corrupt gathered some cloud in her hands and spun it, creating two large headphones. They were both decorated heavily with shells; Rena dropped the act to squirm while the head phones were placed on the hero’s heads. The corrupt sang into a head set and Hawk moth watched in delight as her squirms ceased and both girls nodded along to the song. The corrupt gives one last look at Masquerade and grins with large sharp teeth. The girls are untied and mindlessly follow the corrupt into a swirling cloud that appeared in the room. Hawk moth sighs and lets Masquerade take his hand and swallow both him and the bodyguard in her cloak. The moths left behind take off into the sky as the room starts to fill with water. 

 

“You’re doing great Ladybug now push on his chest right about here” Wayzz says landing softly on the body hidden underneath a green blanket. When Ladybug had caught up with the boys Chat was trying to get Carapace up, Paon told her the bad news with the girls. A palace guard sent to survey the attack came forward and radioed for permission to bring them into the palace. The guard had ushered them into two separate rooms, she had been too polite to ask if she could have a private one so now she was stuck with the turtle hero. Than his miraculous started to give out and she yelped grabbing the nearest cover for him. With a green flash Wayzz flew out and immediately checked his holder’s breathing before turning to Ladybug. Now she was learning how to balance his energies from Wayzz to wake him up, she placed her hands on his chest and he jumped up so suddenly it made both of them fall off the large bed. 

“Carapace stay where you are” she ordered fumbling to regain her dignity.

“Oh hey Ladybug…are we in heaven?” he asks peeking out from under the blanket; the room was cluttered but rather fancy. 

“No, we’re in the palace…I’ll be sleeping the bathroom so I don’t see you with your mask off, get some sleep Carapace” 

Carapace gets to his feet covering his face and body with the blanket, “you can take the bed Ladybug, I’m used to sleeping in cramped places” Ladybug opens her mouth to argue but looking back at the bed she honestly didn’t want to leave it. So she let him go and dropped her transformation after telling him three times not to look. Marionette used some paper to tell Chat and Paon her plan for tomorrow and sighs. Tikki takes the letter once she’s finished and Marionette grabs the pillow to muffle her screams. Ladybug was the fearless leader, but this was too much for the girl behind the mask. She was angry at herself for letting half her team face Masquerade alone. She had no idea where Rena and Bee were or if they were being tortured by Hawk moth. And with the week almost up, she would have to somehow explain to her parents why she wasn’t coming home when they expected to. Her pillow got damp with tears and forced herself to stop when a knock came from the bathroom door. 

“I’m sorry Ladybug, I tried to save them” Nino says looking at himself in the mirror, the door open a crack to let his voice travel. Ladybug looks up from the pillow and pulls out a pigtail. Marionette was unable to hide a sob as she tore the other, letting her hair down for the first time in a while.

“Don’t be Carapace, I should have known it wouldn’t be safe, I should have had us all attack at the same time, I should have-“

“Ladybug” Nino interrupts, “that’s on all of us, not just you. I mean I should have known better than to throw my shield directly at Masquerade leaving myself open to an attack, but alas that’s what I did. We’re going to save the girls and kick Hawk moth’s butt and then you know what?”

“What?” 

“We’re going to celebrate with the biggest pizza party Paris has ever known, and it’s going to be the best pizza ever because this turtle knows his pizza” Nino smiles shyly as Ladybug’s laughter slips though her dying sobs. 

“That sounds awesome Carapace” Marionette squeaks and wipes her eye, Tikki flies back in and gave her an encouraging smile. The two exchange good nights and Marionette throws her hair back into short pigtails before turning off the light, praying the girls would be fine. 

“Thank you for the room this cat really needs a catnap” Chat chirps to the guard in his best English, the guard smiles politely and tips his hat before heading back to his post. Chat allows Paon to walk in first and notices the glassy look in his eyes and he can’t help but chuckle. “I know it’s pretty fancy in here but you should see my father’s vacation house in Japan makes this place look like a penthouse “ he brags jokingly, his smile drops when Paon remains still. “Don’t feel nervous Paon, if the queen wants to talk with us tomorrow this cat’s got it in the bag cause after all-“with a cry of “claws in” his costume disappears. “-I am practically French royalty” he finishes twirling and ending with a bow. To act like Chat while Adrien was fun, now if only he could think of a good pun to throw in with his name that would make it perfect. He’s brought out of his thoughts when a loud thunk comes from Paon; the feathered hero had collapsed onto the floor smacking his head hard. Plagg zips over to him quickly followed by Adrien, if cheese could wait then this was serious. He turns Paon over and gasps at the level of heat that was coming from his body, he was burning up.

“Get his miraculous off kid” Plagg orders and Adrien flashes him a confused look, Plagg almost growls but keeps his tone steady “we need to get the fever down”. Adrien gulps but takes hold of the peacock miraculous and has to tear it off; the jewelry was nearly burning to the touch. With a blue flash the mask disappears and a stressed Duusu appears, “now get him to the bathroom” Plagg orders and Adrien quickly does as he’s told. 

Nath wakes up gasping and cold water splashes out of the bath tub. He can’t voice his confusion before Adrien grabs him by the shoulders and hoists him out of the tub, quickly throwing a towel over him. Nath blinks making sense of his surroundings, they were in a simple but elegant bathroom and based off the water running down his face he had been submerged in the icy water. Adrien shook him to get him to look up, Nath could see the two kwami’s on both sides of the modal with equal expressions of concern. “Are you with us?” Adrien asks giving his shoulder another shake; Nath nodded taking hold of the towel and wiping his face.

“What happened?” Nath asks only for the three to exchange a look.

“We were in the room when you just collapsed; you were running such a high fever I had to get you someplace to cool down and…” Adrien rambled only stopping to breathe when Duusu flew to her holder to check his forehead. He takes a deep breath “sorry I had to remove your shirt once we got in here, you were really burning up”.

“So you threw me in freezing water, and here I thought Ladybug was the one with no chill”

Adrian chuckles and dips his hand in the water to let it drain “what are you talking about? I got tons of chills” he says splashing some water. Nath leans against the wall and it takes Adrien offering to carry him to get him to stand up and walk to the main room. He stumbled over to the closest bed hugging the towel as his body refused to warm him.  
The guest bedrooms at Buckingham Palace were grand and noble, two large beds with heavy blankets were ready for use and there was even a note was attached to one of them with a ladybug sticker. Adrien covered Nath with the blanket and took off his soaking wet shoes and socks. He was about to do the pants when Nath slapped his hand weakly saying he could do it himself. Adrien smiled sheepishly and went to grab the letter; he sat on his own bed and read in silence while Nath dropped the clothing on the ground with a plop. 

Duusu used a smaller towel to dry Nath’s hair best she could, she feels his head heat up once again but not nearly as bad as before. Plagg stared at her from atop Adrien’s head, to faint while transformed was a feat not easily achieved. Duusu’s emotions were pushed aside to work on her holder almost mechanically; she tucked him in and told him to get some rest. Nath tried to say something but exhaustion takes over before he could start. Adrien sighed and held the letter to his chest, “I guess Ladybug’s right we need to rest up before we can find Rena and Bee”. Plagg nodded and went to shut off the light while Adrien threw the blanket over top of him, forgetting to take his shoes off before he fell asleep. In the darkness Plagg catches Duusu’s worried expression as she watches her holder, he groans softly and flies over to take her to the bathroom. 

“You’re never this worried when your holder gets sick” Plagg blurts quietly, Duusu sighs and looks back into the room. 

“It’s not just that, you heard him yesterday somehow he’s using Oracle sight every night. My last holder could only do that by activating the spell even when I begged her not to, I don’t know how he’s doing it” she says beginning to pace in the air. “He doesn’t know any Chinese, he doesn’t even know about the spell powers, I just-“

“If I may” Plagg interrupts, Duusu stops her pacing to stare at him. “Your miraculous was corrupted by Nooroo when you first met, what if Nooroo taught him the spell while he was hypnotized to give us a heads up” 

Duusu blinks and scratches her chin “Nooroo could have lied and said his power wouldn’t work on a miraculous and when he isn’t transformed with his holder it’s possible he could still speak with us…” she gasps and grabs Plagg to shake him. “He could have taught him the spell, but why delay it till now?” Plagg grunts and gets away from the panicked bird, Duusu stops breathing when Nath’s voice reaches her ear holes. It was nearly unintelligible but the kwami’s could tell he was speaking in an ancient tongue. The miraculous by his head glows softly and his face scrunches as if he was in pain. Duusu zips over to her brooch and places a nub on it dimming the light, “only one way to find out, cover me Plagg I’m going in”. With that her body lights up and disappears into her miraculous, Plagg just rolls his eyes knowing full well there was nothing he needed to cover. So instead he lies down on Adrien’s head to get some much needed shut eye.

He couldn’t breathe, Nath thought for a moment he was back in the bathtub but the water was far too deep for it. He kicked and came to the surface with a gasp; a tiny paw bring his hand to dry land. He blinks his vision clear hoisting himself out, “hey Nath, are you okay?” Duusu asks sitting them both down on the grassy field next to the water. 

“Duusu is that you? What are you doing here?” 

“Nathaniel I didn’t tell you the full truth about the visions, you’re not supposed to have them naturally. It’s activated by a spell, a spell you whisper in your sleep every night” she pauses while Nath tries to make sense of what she said. “I’m here because I believe Nooroo is using Oracle sight to help us” she turns to the water and makes a megaphone with her nubs “Nooroo if that’s true prove to me that it’s you”.

Nath taps her on the shoulder to get her to turn to the field; countless wildflowers had appeared as well as giant lilac bushes. A small bush grew towards Duusu and blossomed in front of her, a red and yellow flower with long stigma’s presented itself proudly. She smirked taking the flower in her nubs, “aren’t you the charmer, I remember this day as well” she hums as small yellow butterflies land around them.

“How is Nooroo doing this? I thought we destroyed the akuma butterfly in your miraculous” Nath admits watching a small butterfly land on his shoe right around the ankle, flapping furiously to get his attention. 

“Nooroo isn’t one to pass up an opportunity; he likely set up triggers while he could. Like teaching you the spell and interrupting your last vision with that memory of your dad” Duusu explained and pushed some hair out of his face, it bugged her to no end how his bangs would block his ability to see. “And uh…don’t tell Adrien about this, Plagg and I will tell you more once the time is right” Nath looked like he wanted to say something but instead he nodded, after a minute he opened his mouth only for a loud siren to cut him off. The butterflies flee from the sound and both Duusu and Nath cover their ears. Nath turns to the sound and sees a large tower in the distance, before he can make sense of it a large fish leaps out of the water and swallows them whole.

 

Duusu shot out of her brooch and landed on the mattress with a plop, sunlight shone through the windows and reflected off just about every surface. Nath groaned and moved his head to face Adrien; his body felt a heck of a lot heavier in the real world. His eyebrow raised seeing Plagg licking strands of hair on Adrien’s head while he slept; the kwami caught his eye and glared at him in a way that said “no one would believe you”. Nath forces himself to sit up only for Duusu to push him back down “Nath you’re still sick you should rest for as long as you can”. 

A knock on the door stirs Adrien, a voice from the other side explains he had breakfast on tray and was leaving it outside the door. Adrien waits a few seconds before cracking open the door and dragging a massive tray inside. Eggs, toast, muffins and ham filled the room with its wonderful smell making the boys mouths water. Adrien managed to set the tray beside Nath before helping himself to a piece of toast and peeling a hardboiled egg. Nath propped up on his arm and took some toast as well; the two ate in silence too hungry to talk. While Duusu ate some of the fruit and Plagg complained about the lack of good cheese.

“So did you have a vision?” Adrien asks after a moment, Nath swallows his bite and gathers his thoughts.

“Yes…” he scratches the side of his head “uh water, a giant fish, a siren and…a butterfly on the ankle?” he glances at Duusu who nods in agreement. Adrien scratches his chin then throws his leg onto his lap, the Agreste fashion symbol clear as day on his shoe.

“Am I going to be eaten by a fish?” 

Nath just shrugs and bites into an apple, Adrian gulps nervously and finishes his breakfast.

“Good morning your Majesty, I would like to thank you again for allowing us to rest here” Ladybug says in her best English. Her French accent combined with her sweet polite tone made the queen smile fondly as the superhero placed her cup of tea down carefully, her green partner had been excused to find the others. The queen answered her in French and the look of relief made her chuckle. They were soon sharing stories and laughing politely in between bites of toast and sips of tea. But alas the moment had to end when her guard came up to her and told of massive wave coming their way, Ladybug shot from her seat in order to handle the possible akuma. The queen spared a glance as her guards ushered her away, wondering if the girl under the mask was as sweet as the one ready to defend a country that wasn’t her own. 

 

“I know it rains a lot in London but this I didn’t think flooding was this bad” Chat jokes as the four watch the ever increasing water rise up the buildings. Cars floated by like bath toys in the otherwise empty streets. Ladybug found it awful strange that the streets would be completely empty of people but at least they didn’t have to worry about drowning victims as they searched. 

“It’s like the entire city is sinking” Carapace adds watching another tourist shop disappear under the waves.

“It looks like the akuma or corrupt is under the water, how are we to get down there” Ladybug mutters and fiddles with her yo-yo. After a moment she sighs and jumps down to get close to the water, the boys follow close behind. Chat opens his mouth to speak only for a splash to cut him off, Rena shot out of the water gracefully and grabs hold of Carapace. Her suit looked shinier, and a pair of headphones decorated like an aquatic crown squished her fox ears into her head. Her normally slightly squishy figure was compacted in a way that gave the illusion of missing ribs. 

“Hey hot stuff, let’s go for a swim” she purrs and her long fish tail peeks above the water, before he could splutter a reply she throws the two of them into the calm waters below. Chat tries to grab his hand before they disappear but he’s too late, the two vanish under the water’s surface. 

“Something there looked fishy…” Chat blurts after a moment of silence, Ladybug groans and spots a sports store on the other side of the street. With a flick of yo-yo she grabs some scuba gear and hands the last two teammates the equipment to see and breathe underwater. 

“The akuma has them under some kind of spell, let’s try not to have the same fate” Ladybug ordered cupping the breathing piece around her mouth and plunging in, Chat happily cannon-balled after her. Paon froze for a moment; his costume was going to be a literal drag under the water. “Come on Paon” Ladybug calls impatiently and the bird takes a big sigh before jumping in. 

He was correct, the peacock back feathers made swimming twice as difficult. He had to kick faster just to keep up with the cat and bug, luckily there was no currants to further the struggle. They swam over floating cars and trees and soon found deeper water where they couldn’t see the bottoms. Ladybug points to the surface, they swim up and spit out the mouth pieces to take in fresh air. 

“Okay Chat head down there and see if you can spot the akuma, if you find anything do that spinning baton move you used back with that other ocean akuma” Ladybug gasps spitting out some water that splashed in her face, Chat nods and dives down leaving the other two wadding in the deadly quiet city. Paon lets out a whine as his body struggles to stay afloat; the added weight of the scuba gear was quickly draining his energy. Ladybug takes notice of this and gets them to swim over to a car shaped like a boat, Paon pulls onto the machine and flops down gasping for breath. Ladybug puts a gloved hand on his forehead and brings it back with a sigh. “Paon maybe you should sit this one out” the boy in question shakes his head and sits up.

“I’m fine Ladybug” 

Ladybug puts her mouth piece back in, she dives down to check if her partner was nearby and comes back up after a moment. “Paon you stay here in case Chat comes back up, I’m going down” before Paon could reply she disappears under the surface. He groans and slides into the driver’s seat of the car, fighting against the need to rest as the water rocks the car. 

Chat gasped into his mouth piece as a light appears down below, he swims closer to find a castle of some kind on the floor. Its enchanting glow drew the cat closer; he was close enough to touch the coral walls when someone taps his shoulder. He turns around to find the one and only Queen Bee, but something was very off. The golden fish tail being the biggest, the mermaid points her trident at the cat’s throat and gives a snarl. Chat yelps and uses his baton to jam the weapon before it hits its mark; Bee spins it free and lunges at him again. Chat starts spinning the baton as fast as he can to create an underwater boat motor. He propels away from the castle and crashes into another figure, Ladybug gasps and tries to regain her breath as Chat brings them to the surface. 

“Well did you find anything?” Ladybug spits popping her googles off since they were now full of water, Chat nods only for something to grab his leg. Ladybug cries out when she’s ripped downwards and comes face to face with a bewitched Rena, the fox giggles and traps LB in her arms bringing her deeper underwater. Chat struggles to get out of the iron grip of Bee to no avail; Ladybug manages to see the castle before her vision blacks out. 

Ladybug opens her eyes and gasps; her body was trapped by a giant bubble. Chat was in a bubble next to her eyes closed and head tilted helplessly to one side. She turned her head to find Carapace in a bubble but he also had a pair of headphones similar to Rena’s attached to his head. Rena swam around his bubble eagerly, her tail as vibrant as fire zipped around too fast for Ladybug to follow. 

“Patience little fox, he’s almost ready” a motherly voice boomed from somewhere, Ladybug pretends to still be asleep when Rena glances at her. 

“Why’s he taking so long?” Rena sings in a soft voice, strands of seaweed wrap around her arms gently and bring her away from the bubbles. The mermaid giggles and swims up to a patch of shells gathered in a pile, she pulls out a pair of headphones. Ladybug risks a hiss towards Chat to try and wake him up, the cat remains limp as the seaweed takes the headphones and slips them onto his head. While Rena digs up another Ladybug scans the room desperately, without the scuba equipment she would surly drown before she reached the surface. Paon, Paon could help, Ladybug opens her weapon to send an SOS to him and a knock is heard on her bubble. Rena smiles excitedly “she made these ones especially for you” she chirps holding up a pair of headphones. Unlike the others these ones had red shells; Ladybug gulps and presses as far away from her as she could. The seaweed takes the headphones and starts to bring them towards her head, Ladybug kicks at the weed trying to get it to buzz off. 

A horn is head from outside and the smile drops from Rena’s face, the seaweed retreats into the walls. The headphones slowly drop to the floor as she pulls out her flute and charges outside. Ladybug’s yo-yo suddenly lights up with a call, she answers it while pushing against her bubble to get it closer to Chat’s. 

“Ladybug I have good news for you” Master Fu’s voice chirps happily against her ear, her bubble bumps Chat’s and bounces back. Her bubble pokes against a giant sea urchin and water begins to pool into the bubble. “As you know I have been studying those photos I got from the spell book and I think I have one”.

“It wouldn’t happen to be useful for water would it?” Ladybug shouts as water fills up a third of the bubble.

“Why yes, Ladybug you sound a little distant are you in a cave? You see this spell is one of many that only works when both Ladybug and-” 

“Just tell me it” Ladybug cries as the water fills most of the bubble, cutting of Master Fu’s explanation. He giggles and tells her the words; Ladybug chants them to the best of her panicked ability. Her bubble pops and for a moment Ladybug flails with her cheeks bulged with air, than her miraculous starts to glow. She almost loses her breath when her suit lights up in a red light, Chat’s miraculous doing the same with green. When it dies down her suit had gained a shiny sheen to it, flippers attached to the ends of her feet and her ribbon tied around her pigtails had grown long with pink at the end. Water rushes by her ears and she discovers gills had grown on her neck, she takes a few breaths getting used to the feeling. She opens her eyes and swims over to Chat, popping the bubble and ripping off the headphones then pushing water against his newly formed gills. He had flippers like her, but his arms and tail now also contained fins. His eyes slowly open, and stare at her in surprise. 

“Did I just become a catfish?” he asks looking down at his webbed hands, he giggles and grabs his tail “this is cool”.

Carapace opens his eyes and his bubble pops; Ladybug gasps and pulls Chat to get them swimming away from him. Seaweed reaches around his shoulders and his face flashed with fear, than sea foam poured out of the walls and covered his body. 

Paon checked his fan’s tracker and flipped it open again, this was where Ladybug had sent the SOS but there wasn’t anything here. He popped his ears to even the pressure and flapped the fans to push forward. He still had to use the oxygen tank and the clunky thing banged him in the back of the head for the third time as he searched the cloudy water. Yellow and orange enter his vision and he somehow dodges the sharp trident thrown at his throat, Rena tackles him and throws him into a metal beam. He chokes on water and snaps the fans closed to hit her across the face, glancing up he discovers they were on some part of the London eye. Bee sneaks up behind him while he’s trying to dodge Rena’s flute, she stabs the oxygen tank and rips it away. Paon immediately flaps upwards to find the surface, but he doesn’t get far before the mermaids grab him. 

Ladybug and Chat duck inside one of London’s many coffee shops, Carapace zips by boosted by streams of water that blasted out of his turtle shell. Chat does a somersault in the air while Ladybug calls Paon only to get his voice mail. “Chat could you please take this seriously, our entire team just became fish minions” she cries snapping the yo-yo shut. 

“I am Ladybug, I was just thinking…” he purrs floating down and looking at her while upside down “I heard Siren’s song for a little bit and I think I need to hear the rest”. Ladybug raises brows under her mask, making the cat giggle “sorry I think the spells still wearing off” he breaks off into more giggles. Ladybug has to slap him slightly to get him to focus again. A humming enters Ladybug’s ears and her eyes close to listen to it. She forces them open and swims over to the floating items in search of something to cover her ears; she finds some gross soaked napkins and sticks them into her ears. 

She turns to stuff Chat’s only to find him swimming outside towards a bright light, “Chat no cover your ears” she cries grabbing him and swimming away from the light. 

“Let me go, she’s calling me” Chat shouts squirming in her grasp, Ladybug shoves the napkins in his ears and hides inside a double decker bus that floated by. After a moment the light fades revealing the creature, a giant ugly angler fish with coral and seaweed hanging off it. Ladybug bites her lip as it swims around looking for them, than a horn sounds though the water. The angler looks towards the sound and shoots off towards it. Chat shakes free of the spell and looks over her shoulder “sorry Ladybug, I blacked out for a second there”.

“WHAT?”

“I SAID…NEVER MIND LET’S FOLLOW THAT FISH’S BUBBLES” 

“GOOD IDEA” with that the two take off towards London’s aquarium.

 

Paon opens his eyes to a beautiful girl in front of him; her golden locks swirled in the slight currant. Her lips pressed against his…Bee’s lips pressed against his…Bee’s lips

Paon yelps and throws his body back, although he doesn’t get far since she had her tail wrapped around his torso. She giggles and pushes her lips over his again, as amazing as this was he kind of needed air so he tried desperately to break free. Bee waves some water over his neck to activate the gills and calm the bird down as he learned how to use them. 

“How did you…” Paon breaths out only for Bee to run her hands though his hair, she practically purrs while he resists leaning into her touch. 

“Why isn’t he in a bubble?” Rena snaps drawing their attention, she pushes past some of the fish swimming by and puts her hands on her hips. The glow of hundreds of fish egg like orbs lit up her face in the darkened aquarium hallways. 

“I couldn’t wait any longer, so I gave him gills” Bee sings running a hand down his face, giggling at his blush. Rena rolls her eyes and Carapace comes into view behind her. He slowly reaches a hand out to touch her headphones and her head snaps around. Whatever she was going to say is cut off by the angler swimming in; the angler scowls at Bee and turns to Carapace making a high pitched sound.

Carapace floats in place with a confused look, Rena giggles and takes his arm “She’s asking you to grab Paon headphones silly, he needs to hear her song” she sings and drags him over to a pile of shells in the corner. Carapace slowly digs though the shells and Rena impatiently bumps him aside to pull out a pair decorated with blue and green shells. Paon struggles to free himself but Bee nips at his ear and tightens her hold. 

“I was so worried you wouldn’t like me Paon, but the siren took away all my worries and now she’ll take away yours” Bee purred as Rena shoved the headphones over his ears. Paon shook his head to try and get them off, the song began to play making his vision blur. The voice beautiful despite not being a language he understood. Bee and Rena eagerly watched as he began to nod along to the song, not noticing they were being watched from above.

“Looks like we found the team” Ladybug mutters watching Paon fight a losing battle. “We need to find where that song is coming from before we’re brainwashed too”. Chat nods and puts the napkin back in his ear; slowly he positions his baton and extends it to try and knock off Bee’s headphones. A loud fog horn echo’s throughout the building making the catfish panic and hide behind nearby coral before his cover was blown. Suddenly a hand rips the napkins out of his ears; he instinctively covers his ears and turns to find Paon staring back at him. 

“Look I’m a peacock bass” he chirps and whips his tail across Chat’s face, Chat crashes into the wall crying out. Paon threw out his fans now enlarged and fin designed instead of feathers, his legs morphed together into an admittedly gorgeous blue and red tail. He threw them back and shot towards the cat, Chat brings his baton out and blocks each attack. Ladybug shoots down and kicks Paon away, than swings her yo-yo to deflect the strikes made by Bee. Rena joins in and nearly overpowers Ladybug as she’s forced to quickly zip around the mermaid’s attacks from all sides. The angler charges in and hits Ladybug into a pile of seaweed; she turns to Chat and orders Paon to grab him from behind. Chat struggles in his hold and shuts his eyes when the lure lights up, the angler hums to weaken him into opening them. 

Suddenly Paon cries out and let go of Chat to grab at the headphones on his head. Rena and Bee do the same crying in pain, the angler looks around confused and its gaze falls on Carapace swimming into the room a smirk on his face. He adjusts a dial on his wrist and the sound intensifies. The mermaids rip the headphones off and cover their ears to escape the angry white noise; the angler hisses in annoyance and readies her giant teeth to swallow him whole. Carapace uses the jet on his back to escape and leads her right to the surface. Once in the air Carapace turns around and throws his shield

“Shell shock”

Ladybug scoops Rena and Bee out of the way as the siren’s electrified body lands back in the room with a loud splash, Chat doing the same with Paon. Carapace lands atop its body and grins at them, “sorry guys, took me awhile to hack into her sound system”.

“How are you not under her spell?” Ladybug asks while she helps Rena to her…fins. Rena rubs her head and gasps at her lack of feet, Bee takes it about as well as you would expect. An insane amount of childish glee mixed with horror of what did I do under the bad guys spell?

Carapace grins and takes off the shell headphones and the hood, revealing a pair of green earbuds in his ears. “I fight better with battle music” he chirps putting the hood back on and letting the shell headphones hit the floor. 

“So why’d you chase us out of the castle back there?” Chat fires scraping trapped pieces of napkin out of his ears.

Carapace rubs behind his neck sheepishly “I guess you could say I didn’t have my sea legs yet, I kept going in one direction until I smacked into the aquarium” 

Chat grins excitedly “your first pun, I’m so proud” he squeals and goes to hug the turtle; Carapace rolls his eyes realizing the mistake. Paon and Rena join in on the chatter just to further Carapace’s misery, Bee and Ladybug giggle from the sidelines. “Let’s take a picture to remember this moment” Chat continues and Ladybug can’t help but do so while the rest of the group poses.

Rena had her body spread out on the floor in your standard “draw me like one of your French girl’s” position, Bee hugged Carapace’s left arm while Chat had the right. Paon floated above them unintentionally showing off his tail and the feathers that clung to his sides, Carapace smiled in a way that said he was amused but embarrassed. And then there was Ladybug taking up half the photo being the closest to the camera and giving a peace sign with her free hand.

“Now what” Bee asks unable to hide a yawn, the lack of sleep last night catching up with her. Chat darts around the collapsed angler and gives a shrug, no akumantized object or black spots. Ladybug scratches her chin while Paon thinks back to his vision…the horn.

As if one cue the loud fog horn sounds rumbling in his ears, “Let’s find the source of that horn” Ladybug orders leading the charge out of the aquarium, Carapace had to leave to go refuel his kwami but promises to catch up. They swim effortlessly though the empty streets of London, dodging phone booths that flew past. Soon they find what was causing the horn, a giant conch shell that looked very out of place on the London streets. Connected to the shell was a beautiful castle with an enchanting glow, Ladybug gets he team to hide behind a statue to watch it blow its horn again. The horn gave a much lower sound and thousands of glowing bubbles dart to the surface. 

“I have a feline this is a corrupt, so Paon get that arrow of yours ready” Chat whispers to Paon, the merman looks at him questionably but doesn’t get the chance to voice it. The group sneaks towards the conch checking for guards, voices make them duck for cover. Two of the queen’s guards turned into merman swim by chattering away to each other, the group holds their breath until they disappear around the corner. 

“Alright here’s the plan” Ladybug announces bringing the group to the ground, using sand collected there she makes a makeshift picture of the castle. “Chat and Rena you go here and destroy that conch, if the guards come back create an illusion to get away” she pauses to let the two trouble makers nod in understanding. Although both are trying not to laugh at her drawing skills, two stick men one with cat ears and the other fox smiled next to the conch. “Paon you’re coming with me, we’re going find the throne room and find the one responsible for this mess” a drawn ladybug with a silly smile joined an ordinary stick man with an arrow pointing to the castle. 

“Why don’t I get a characteristic?” Paon pouts and Ladybug rolls her eyes, she draws four lines behind the Paon stick man. “Now I just look like an octopus” Chat and Rena giggle while Ladybug scowls at the bird.

“What about me Ladybug?” Bee asks sitting down causing a gust of water with her tail, the plan washes away from the impact. She smiles sheepishly when Ladybug shifts her disapproving look her way, hands on her hips at her team’s childishness.

“You Bee are going to be our lookout, when Carapace comes by wave him over and make sure we don’t tip off the guards” Ladybug finishes rubbing her temple, Bee looks disappointed but doesn’t complain much to Lb’s relief. She sends Chat and Rena out and Paon follows her to the castles entrance, the same one she and Chat had been held captive in the bubbles.

Now that she wasn’t swimming for her life Ladybug could take in the gorgeous sights inside the castle, the interior was lit up on all sides by orbs or sunlight. Shells and jewels decorated the walls and furniture, and flags with an unknown symbol gave the castle personality. They swim by the room Ladybug was held in and voices come from around the corner, quickly Ladybug pushes Paon into the room to hide behind the doors. More guards swim by and one stops outside the room, he sniffs loudly and looks around. Paon gulps as he draws out his spear and slowly swims into the room. The fog horn blares again this time its tone much higher, an alarm. The guard abandons his search to join up with the others to attack the intruders elsewhere, Ladybug bites her lip “let’s go while we still have time” she orders grabbing Paon by the hand and heading the opposite way the guards did.

“THAT WAS LOUD” Rena shouts unable to hear herself otherwise, the assault on her ears leaving them ringing in pain. Chat agrees having taking the full blast when he touched the conch trying to push it over, Rena yells something else but he doesn’t make it out. 

“WHAT?” he yells than arms grab him from behind, he yelps and tries to swim out of the guards grip. He pulls out his baton and jabs it into the guard’s throat forcing the arms to drop. Three more guards charge them and Chat ducks behind the conch to avoid the sharp spears, ending up with in a sword fight with a forth. “RENA YOUR FLUTE” 

“RIGHT” Rena pulls out her flute and plays a practiced tune, but no sound comes out. Two guards approach her and she blows harder this time, earning a long high pitched note for her efforts. Instead of an illusion a powerful light bursts from the flute blinding their attackers, unfortunately it also blinds Chat. Rena gasps for breath and smacks Chat to gain his attention, while the guards were still rubbing their eyes she points to the conch.

“Cataclysm” Chat calls his power and touches the conch shell; it cracks and crumbles into sand. It gives one last sound before Chat’s power overwhelms it. Neither have a chance to celebrate as tentacles wrap around them and pull them down towards the castle, they let out a scream as the octopus drags them inside “Bee where are you?” Chat cries before the gates cut his voice off.

“And as you can see, the lion fish would be a more appropriate animal for London now that it’s underwater. Not to mention its known for being an invasive animal and quite venomous, which suites British history quite well wouldn’t you say” Bee spoke as three fish exchanged looks of agreement. They had mistook the mermaid for one of the castle’s ladies in waiting, and had asked her about improvements needing done to London. Bee quickly improvised a bunch of rubbish that seemed to be working why she could talk to fish all of a sudden was a question she wasn’t going to ask. She covers her ears as the conch gives its loud alarm, the fish panic and grabs her hand to drag her into the castle ignoring her cries to get them to wait. 

Ladybug and Paon duck behind a bunch of seaweed in the throne room, the elegant room covered in gold and silver. The room was empty for a moment giving them a chance to check for anything that help them once the corrupt came in. “Maybe it’s-“ Ladybug shushes him a bunch of mermaids and fish rush in. Bee held captive by a bunch of guppies who patted her hair down to be presentable to the Siren, the Siren had a beautiful body but the head nearly made Bee gag. The corrupt pulled a blue trident out from beside the throne and runs a scaly hand across Bee’s face “Why are your headphones’ gone, child?” she hums and the lure on her head lights up. Bee’s eyes glaze over helpless to the light. 

“I…” 

Ladybug clenched her teeth and scanned the room; if the Siren would just move her body to the side she could nab the trident out of her hands. 

“…I wanted to hear your song live” Bee blurts leaning into the siren’s hand as it stroked her cheek once more, the corrupt smiles shyly. The rest of the fish cheer and encourage her to sing and make her smile even wider.

“We do need to gather more energy now that the conch has been destroyed” she purrs and her trident transforms into a microphone. 

“Now” Ladybug shouts and Paon blasts the sandy floor with his fans blinding the room in a dust cloud, while they’re distracted she throws the yo-yo intending to snag the mic. Even with superhero powers the effect in water makes the throw painfully slow, the Siren smacks it away easily and tugs on the string to pull Ladybug into her grasp. “Oh fish sticks” 

Rena and Chat cry out as they’re thrown into a makeshift prison made of coral, Chat’s miraculous begins its countdown much to his dismay. The octopus sits down and glares at them from across the room, “I need to get out of here” Chat cries trying not to panic. This was not a good place to feel claustrophobic; Rena gets the attention of some passing guards.

“Please just let him go to the surface, he’ll drown” Rena begs but the guards aren’t moved, one leaves after two paws were gone making them hopeful. But that hope is dashed when he comes back with two sets of headphones decorated with shells. Chat pulls Rena away from them for an emergency meeting at the back of the cage, his miraculous falls to one paw. 

“Okay you can have me, but leave Rena alone” Chat announces and the guard goes to open the cage, the other two ready their weapons in case they tried anything. 

“Chat no we’ll find another way” Rena tries to grab his arm only for the octopus to hold her back, Chat bows his head to let them place the black shelled headphones on.

“Sorry Rena, Ladybug will save us I promise” Chat says before his eyes close and nod along to the song, Rena protests as the sea foam covers his form right as the miraculous gives out. The octopus throws Rena back into the cage along with the confused kwami that flew out of Chat’s form. Rena catches the kwami and holds it close as the guards take the new merman away before she could see his face. 

Paon swung his massive tail and knocked down several guards and fish servants, Ladybug jammed her finger into the Siren’s eye but freezes when the lure on its head lights up.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it, when you watch it’s like all you can hear is my voice. All that matters is my voice, and you’ll do anything to hear it” the corrupt purred grabbing Ladybug’s chin to prevent her from looking away. 

“Anything…” Ladybug echo’s as it fills her mind, the corrupt smiles and turns her head to face Paon hitting away a guard’s spear and smacking another down with his tail. Bee whipped out her trident dipper and hits him in the chest; he cries out but manages to break away before the trident does any real damage. 

“Get the bird to quiet down and I’ll sing for you, I’ll sing for everyone” the Siren whispers into Ladybugs ear, in her trance that seemed like the most logical thing in the world. She swims over and zips in circles around Paon, he doesn’t know what’s happening until she tugs the string trapping him in the yo-yo. He wiggles in place while the guards recover and pin him to the floor, the Siren pets Ladybug on the head for a job well done. 

Two more guards swim in with a third merman behind them, Paon gasps recognizing the model despite the changes. His tail was shorter than Paon’s, a bright green that almost blended with the cloudy sea. He also wore a knights helmet that hid most of his face other than the eyes. Paon growls as the guards force him to a sitting position, pinning his tail to immobilize him. Adrien sits beside them while the Siren prepares her mic, he catches Paon’s eye and winks.

“Shelly, think you can hack her sound system again?” Rena whispers into her flute phone, Plagg floated by her ear to listen in.

“Oh I got a new nickname now?” Carapace chirps and several button noises are heard in the background “I’m in what has to be her studio, give me a minute and I think I can get in”. Carapace continues running a gloved hand over the hundreds of dials and buttons that lined the studio, the same logo on the castle’s flags was on a drum set floating in the corner. His eyes light up spotting the DJ station lit up in the otherwise dark room, next to the radio that was playing the siren’s song over and over. Its magic was powerless against the pirates of the Caribbean music playing in his earbuds. He smirks and cracks his hands “let’s get this party started”. 

Rena agrees and picks up the headphones set in the cage in case she gave up, she pulls off a cone shell and hands it to Plagg. The Kwami now with fins instead of nubs took it in his mouth and phased though the bars to pick at the lock. The octopus shoots towards them and Rena plays her flute as hard as she can, the high pitched note turning into the bright light once more. The octopus rears back and inks the room; Plagg feels a hand grab him and quickly zip though the ink to the hall. 

“What are you doing kit this is towards the throne room, how are we going to free my chosen if we get caught?” Plagg yells being forced to endure the ride. 

“Relax catfish we got this under control” Rena claims picking up speed, Plagg yelps as she puts him in her ponytail to have both hands free. Rena ducks into a room and grins finding a sound system connected to each of the rooms, under Carapace’s instruction she sets the dials correctly.

A pair of headphones is shoved over Paon’s, Bee’s, and Ladybug’s ears much to the bird’s dismay. The siren’s eerie song begins to play, Paon perks when static starts to come from one of them. The guards tap at their own headphones in confusion while the Siren checks her mic. 

Rena grabs the mic attached to the table “DROP THE BASS!” 

Loud dub step follows Rena’s shout rattling the castle’s walls, Ladybug and Bee snap out of their trances while the guards scream and clench their heads. Adrien steals a sword from the closest guard and uses it to swipe the one holding Paon’s tail. He rips off Paon’s headphones and attacked the next guard raising his sword to attack. The Siren hisses unable to control the fish that fled in fear, she doesn’t notice Paon until his fin slaps her into the wall.

“It’s over Siren” Ladybug announces ripping off the Siren’s headset and snapping it in two, the Siren growls and her body morphs into sea foam. Ladybug gasps as she absorbs into the wall and her face appears on it. 

“Not yet” it sang and the entire began to turn into fish’s fleshy insides, the miraculous team yelp and dash for the exits. Ladybug doesn’t have a chance to ask where Chat was as the corrupt reveals its true form, a giant angler fish covered in shells and seaweed. 

“Lucky Charm” 

A wireless mic floats into her hands; she checks it over and shoots downwards to avoid the teeth of the corrupt. Her eyes catch the black spot before it’s swallowed up in the lure’s light; before she’s able to tell the team her plan the Siren corners her. With a deep breath she sings into the mic sending sound waves towards the Siren, it takes the hit and sends sound waves of its own back at her. Ladybug crashes against a building and fires her voice again, reaching a stalemate. Ladybug gasps for breath and a hand grabs hers, she turns to find a merman with his face hidden behind a helmet. He smiles and takes the mic, taking Ladybug’s place in the song battle. She drops thanks and explains to her teammates the plan, they nod and start grabbing sound speakers from a nearby music store. The Siren doesn’t stand a chance against the noise coming from all directions, it’s screeching in pain when Ladybug rejoins the stranger and blasts it down with a powerful sound wave.  
The Siren falls to the ground and its light dies revealing the black spot, Paon swims over to take it off. The stranger starts to swim away but Ladybug catches his arm “wait who are you?”

The stranger smiles again and takes a pair of orange earbuds out of his ears “I’m the fish completely hooked by you” he says before shooting off before the suction of the black hole could catch him, Ladybug bumps against a statue preventing her from getting sucked in and feels her cheeks heat up. Chat shirtless was now an image burned into her memory for the rest of time. She holds up her lucky charm as soon as the massive peacock appears, returning London to its normal state. 

“Hey uh Paon-” Bee starts once London was back to normal; the people returned looking confused but otherwise unharmed. Rena kept the excited fans at bay while the others took to the rooftops; Ladybug had disappeared claiming to head to the train station leaving the two alone. “-did I say anything embarrassing while under the Siren’s spell?” Bee’s eyes widen and her wings flutter nervously.

Paon checks his miraculous before answering, four feathers left “uh…well no nothing embarrassing just uh nothing…” he trails off as a thought occurs to him. Before he transformed this morning did he put his pants back on? His miraculous lost another minute and it dawned that no, no he did not. 

Bee releases her breath “that’s a relief, I uh had a question for you” she pauses to pull at her ponytail. Paon looks below and spots a charity shop next to an ally, if he was careful Duusu could grab a pair while he hid. He turns back to Bee and tries his best to look carefree, picking at ends of his gloves. Bee clenches her fist, it was now or never. He didn’t have time to stand around while she fought to get her mouth to work, nerves get the best of her and she stutters in a mess of “um” and “uh” than finally blurts “WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE COLOUR?”

Nailed it

Paon’s head is racing and in his panic reverts to German than immediately to French with a strong German accent. Bee just blinks completely lost but force a small smile, his eyes bulge as the miraculous hits its final feather.  
Bee’s face burns “oh cool, really cool mines yellow no red, I should go” she squeaks quickly and flies off, Paon blurts out a rushed good bye of his own and jumps to the ground. With a final beep his miraculous gives out and he crashes into a dumpster with a loud clang. 

His head is still spinning when laughter comes from above him, he groans and pokes his head out to find Adrien practically pissing himself laughing. Nath tries to climb out but his foot hooks on the metal and he crashes loudly to the floor, Adrian pulls himself together long enough to help him out before grabbing his gut in his giggle fit. “You need some serious work with your flirting. That was just awful” Adrien blurts face turning red.

“Man I am glad I snuck out of Rena to hide behind your costume that was gold” Plagg adds only stopping when Duusu shot him a scorning look. Nath tugs a sheet found in the dumster around his waist tighter, even with underwear on he felt seriously self-conscious. 

“Sorry Nath Plagg told me the whole thing, really hard not to laugh on top of” he gestures to the sheet “you turned into a mermaid and now you’re wearing a sheet, you’re basically Arial now”.

“Not helping Adrien” Nath snaps softly, Adrien pulls out a phone from his back pocket and his laughter completely stops. He turns it and pushes the device into Nath’s face, showing a news article advising people to be on the lookout for Adrien Agreste. A truck beeps a few meters away and Adrien jumps behind the dumpster on instinct, a man gets out and dumps a few trash bags by the back door of the charity shop and drives off. Nath swallows his pride and grabs Adrien to raid though the bags, taking a pair of black jeans that were only one size too big. 

“Hey Nath you should wear this” Adrien chirps holding up a bright teal hoodie.

Nath reads the writing on the hoodies front and squints “fine but only if you wear this” he pulls out one that caught his eye. Adrien makes a face and Nath smirks “you need a disguise and nothing else is large enough”. Adrien sighs and takes the clothing, changing his whole outfit for good measure. They both leave a few Eros in the bag before heading off to feed their kwami’s.

“Yuck, that won’t do keep looking” Plagg hisses in Adrien’s ear, the kwami protected from view by the giant hood. Adrien rolled his eyes under his sunglasses and turned away from the convenience store window, the cheese strings on sale not good enough for Plagg. 

“How are you making that look good?” Nath blurts eyes drawn to the stuffed horn on the top of Adrien’s hood. For the first time in his life Adrian wore clothes not designed by his dad, instead he wore a bright pink hoodie with angel wings on the back and a unicorn horn on the hood. The words “unicorn power” was printed on the front with sparkles. He also wore a pair of green skinny jeans with a “pow” comic bubble on his left hip, yet somehow he was rocking it like he was on the runway. Nathaniel felt his face heat up for the third time as people peeked at the two; Duusu patted him under the hood. His hood didn’t have anything spectacular but on the front contained the words “undercover mermaid” with shells decorating the sleeves. He hadn’t noticed the rips in the jeans when he put them on and he had yet to notice the cat paw on his butt. 

“I’m fabulous that’s why” Adrien says without skipping a beat, Plagg finally spots some cheese he would eat and they head into a fancy looking dairy. Nath stays outside handing Duusu parts of the sandwich he had bought at the first store they looked in. 

 

Later on the train back to Paris Duusu pokes her head out to find everyone asleep aside from Plagg, who gave a silent greeting and pointed to a bag under the seat. Duusu nodded and thanked him before flying into the bag. Inside phone’s flashlight is on its lowest setting to protect Tikki’s eyes, the red kwami sits patiently as Duusu takes a seat beside her. “You wanted to speak with me” Tikki says getting straight to the point, Duusu nodded and held her nubs together. 

“It’s my chosen, there’s an overwhelming amount of energy around him and I can’t figure out why. It’s hurting him, just last night he fainted while transformed and had a high fever” Duusu paused to watch Tikki’s face, the kwami was deep in thought. 

She opened her eyes and stared hard at Duusu, “is this energy around him corrupted? You know what has be done if that’s the case”. 

Duusu shook her head “it doesn’t have to come to that, that’s why I’m begging you to help him. Even out his energies please” Tikki’s patient expression grows forced but she remains calm.

“Duusu you know I can’t do that I need my chosen to assist me and I can’t risk them knowing each other’s identities. You know how important the secret identity’s are” Tikki sighs and puts a nub on Duusu’s shoulder “if your chosen is corrupted you have to make him give you up, we can’t lose you to darkness again”.

“No” Duusu slaps the nub off and sucks in her tears “I won’t leave my peachick, he needs me”.

Tikki’s patience breaks like a violin string “have you learned nothing from that day the guardian’s temple fell? The day you selfishly made a wish to see your ex chosen and made Master Fu blame himself to this day, you get too attached Duusu. They aren’t all going to die peacefully, if they’re corrupted you have to make them give you up and they aren’t your peachicks!” 

“The guardian’s temple was bound to collapse wish or no wish” Duusu fired back holding back her tears “and I will never regret helping my chosen become a hen, just as I will never give up on my holders because that’s what kwami’s do”. Tikki clenched her jaw and wiped tears that clouded her vision, but Duusu wasn’t finished “and for your secret identity’s Hawk moth doesn’t even care. He knew my chosen’s identity from the beginning and never attacked his family…” Duusu paused eyes growing wide “he never attacked his family”. Tikki opens her mouth to speak but Duusu flies off before she can, getting the phrase wrong might have been just a clue that something was up but showing a painful memory of his dad, the flower garden and a butterfly on the ankle. There was only one person in she knew that fit each of those clues. 

Gabriel Agreste better look out, two pounds of motherly rage was coming his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had to do some writers research for this chapter, including how gills work and what wind instruments sound like underwater.  
> 


	22. How to train your dragon(s)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back everyone, and I think this is the first chapter that I tried three different plots before finding one I was happy with.  
> I also just realized I've been saying these Characters are speaking French but I'm using English puns, tee hee :)

Chapter 22 How to train your dragon(s)  
“We could breathe underwater Tikki, what other secret powers could those spells unlock? Can I shoot fire? Can Chat turn into a cat? Ooo can we go into space” Marionette blabs pushing her computer chair back from her project to spin around on it. She shuts her mouth noticing Tikki was looking out the window, a few birds zipped by and Tikki let out a sigh. 

“You okay Tikki you seem a little down” 

It took Tikki a moment to realize Marionette was speaking to her, “I’m fine Marionette, I probably shouldn’t tell you what powers there is since it could be forever before Master Fu decodes another one”. Marionette’s eyes grew and she spun around giving a loud groan, she dragged herself to the laptop to continue with her project. Ignoring the pile of homework to her side that she would likely freak out over later. 

Tikki’s eyes looked to the floor torso heavy, over weighed with emotions swirling inside; she hadn’t meant to blow up at Duusu like that. It was just the very thought that her wielder could be corrupted brought back painful memories, when the guardians began to fall apart. She looked over at Marionette hearing her parents call for her and then gave her a look before heading downstairs. If Tikki was in Duusu’s position all those years ago she would have done the same thing, and that scared her to no end. 

Tikki closed her eyes deciding a quick nap was in order before Marionette complained about schoolwork only for a scream to come from below. Recognizing the voice Tikki bolts down using the stairs railing for cover, gasping at the sight in the kitchen. Marionette was held by the neck by a masked creature, two sand piles lay at their feet with aprons on top. The creature finished it’s chant and the red marking appeared over the skin on Marionette, insect like wing designs on her back and swirls around her arms. The red was broken by swirls of orange around her chest; otherwise it was the standard ladybug pattern. Tikki was frozen as Masquerade spoke “tell me wielder of creation and illusion where does your guardian hide?” she asked in the ancient language. A bright light lit up at Marionette’s throat, her cheeks puffed up trying to hold it down but it ripped through telling the monster the location of Master Fu’s shop. Masquerade throws Marionette to the ground harshly then vanishes into a black portal, Marionette gasps for breath tears leaking down her face. Tikki recovers enough to fly to her and try to comfort her, Marionette hugs Tikki as her body began to shake. 

Her parents, she had to find them. Marionette pulled herself to her feet and tore through the bakery; Tikki helped with the search and found a fine powder by the window. At first glance it looked like powdered sugar but Tikki knew otherwise, the powder was from one of the giant moths. Tikki clenched her nubs like she was making a fist; she was so distracted by her fight with Duusu she had allowed this to happen. Marionette gasped at the door opening and rushed into the arms of her parents knocking giant grocery bags to the ground.

“Marionette what’s wrong? Your eyes are red” Sabine recovers from the fall first ignoring the flour clinging to her clothes, she wipes the tears trailing down Marionette’s face. Tom puts the bags upright before joining the group hug, eyes full of confusion and concern.

“It’s nothing; I just really missed you guys” Marionette chokes out 

Sabine didn’t look convinced “was it that Adrien boy? Did something happen with him” 

“If he did anything to hurt you I’ll make sure he gets nothing but raisins in his cookies and cinnamon buns” Tom jumps in helping Marionette to her feet, she wiped her eyes and giggled from her fathers “threat”. 

“I promise I just was homesick, Adrien and I actually had a lot of fun” Marionette says with much more cheer, Tikki waves to her from the window and points to the left where the master’s house was. An indication to get her butt in gear “I-uh I’ll tell you all about it when I get back from school” with speed only a crazed Marionette could manage she jumps away from her parents. Nearly tripping over the bags as she races out the door, Tikki zips though the window and meets her at the nearest ally. 

“Tikki spots on” 

Ladybug kicks though the door ready to fight, an empty shop greets her. The floor torn, water dripping from broken pipes, papers and dried plants scattered everywhere. It was like a hurricane had come though the place, Ladybug bent down to pick up the horn part of the gramophone. Her eyes widen and she drops it in her haste to find the box, the same box her miraculous came from. Not on the table, not in the kitchen, she’s about to burst into the bedroom when voices stop her. Slowly she creaks open the door to see Mater Fu speaking to a figure with its back to her. Despite the look of his house the master appeared as calm as he normally did, even as the figure floated towards him like a cat ready to pounce.

“So you are the guardian now, I wouldn’t have expected you to live this long” Masquerade deadpans dropping the hood of her cloak, Ladybug spun her yo-yo ready to attack but the master’s voice stuns her.

“I do not have what you seek; your miraculous was lost in the mountains” 

Masquerade screams in frustration and slashes a desk beside her, her claws go right though the wood turning it to splinters effortlessly. Fu hugs a box closer to his chest, Ladybug moved to open the door but Fu catches her eye, even as the villain moves to the next piece of furniture he doesn’t even flinch away. “NO IT HAS TO BE HERE” Masquerade cried voice cracking, Ladybug almost felt bad for her. “I can’t continue like this, I’m running out of time” her hands tremble as she grabs the sides of the mask, Ladybug covers her mouth to hide her gasp. She instantly recognized the person as Natalie, Adrien’s and Mr. Agreste’s manager, but her face was covered in deep cuts that glowed from within a purple light. Her eyes widened as one by Nathalie’s mouth made an audible crack and spread up to join one on her cheek, almost like a smile. 

Fu sighed and looked down to the box before meeting Nathalie’s eyes “I am sorry; I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been though. But you must leave this women’s body, you’re killing her” his voice is so soothing the creature actually begins to cry.

The sobs end so soon and a cold wind nips at Ladybug’s neck, Masquerade puts her mask back on looming over Fu as a black smoke curled around the ends of her cloak. “If I can’t buy myself time then so be it, I won’t give up guardian not when I’m so close, I’ll save them, I’ll save them, I’ll save them, I’LL SAVE THEM, I’LL SAVE THEM”. Her voice distorts as she chants no longer of stable mind, she raises her hands ready to tear into Fu for all it was worth.

“Ladybug” Fu shouts and she leaps into action, she jumps in between the two and swings her yo-yo fast enough it becomes a shield. Masquerade shrieks pulling her hand back, she glares at Ladybug then raises a hand behind her. A black portal appears behind her and she vanishes into it before Ladybug could attack, the silence that fell only broken by the heavy breathing by the two. Ladybug turned to face him and offered him a hand to his feet, Fu hadn’t even realized he had fallen to his knees. 

Her grip on his hand tightened, Fu met her eyes to find them foggy with unshed tears. He sighed and looked to the floor for a second, then gently tugged her hand to bring her close and wrap his free arm around her. She didn’t resist and returned the hug with all she had. 

“Are you okay?” Ladybug chokes out dropping her arms to wipe at her eyes; Fu nods eyes moving to the box in his hands.

“Ladybug I think it’s time you visit an old friend of mine” 

 

Marionette knocked at the door to a small cottage at the base of a mountain, perhaps the only place in China that wasn’t surrounded by people at all sides. A minute passes and she wonders if she’s even in the right place, she glances at the address written on a piece of paper. The door creaks open and by instinct she pulls her bag closer to her side, a women glares at her with her one working eye. She takes one look at Tikki poking her head out from the bag and the door opens the rest of the way, a gesture to come in. Marionette hesitates but steps inside, the women doesn’t say anything as she leads her into a sitting room with a massive fireplace. She sits down on the floor and removes the hood of her robe, revealing blue veins that pulsed though her bald head. She points a finger at Marionette and snaps something in Chinese, Marionette flinches “any chance you speak French?” she squeaks.

The women rolls her eyes and snaps something again, without missing a beat the women dips her hand in a gooey green substance and draws a symbol on her throat. “Who are you girl, and why do you come here?” she snapped in French this time, Marionette is too stunned to speak so Tikki speaks for her.

“Forgive us for coming to you Wang Shu but we beg for your help, the guardian Master Fu has been threatened by a great evil. An evil that knows the spell of Kwami”  
Shu narrows her eyes “and you think I will teach her? Absolutely not, too young” she bares her yellow decaying teeth “the only reason I let you in was to take what doesn’t belong to you”. Her fingers snap and Marionette yelps and grabs at her ears as the miraculous lights up and pulls towards Shu.

Tikki flies in front of her holder preventing the earrings from getting in Shu’s hands “I know she’s too young but we’re out of options”.  
Shu clicked her tongue turning back to Marionette keeping her distance; she swallowed then faced her gaze determined. “My name is Marionette Dupain-Cheng, if you hold the key to stopping Hawk moth and Masquerade then I’ll do it, extensive training, speak backwards, lick my elbow whatever you need me to do I’ll do it”. 

Shu leaned back then burst out laughing, Marionette clenched her fist frustrated “you sound just like little Ying the first Ladybug I knew” Shu says voice dropping its joy. “You want to know what I teach. Come and gaze into the fire” Shu snaps her finger and the fireplace leaps to life, flames licking away at the rotten wood. Marionette spares a look at Tikki who nods to reassure her, cautiously Marionette sits down in front of the flames and watches them slowly turn the wood to ash. Without warning Shu threw a small bag into the flames, the bag burned and the flames turned blue and dark red. Marionette doesn’t get the chance to ask what that was about, her mind now fuzzy as the colours swarmed her vision. Her eyes snapped shut and she hit the floor with a dull thud, Shu sighed and crossed her legs into the typical medication stance.

“You can do this Marionette” Tikki quietly cheers as the test began.

Marionette opened her eyes to an open blue sky, white clouds floated by above and around her feet. She looked down and took a step back discovering she was seemingly standing on the mist itself no ground in sight. The sound of wind was the only sound until a voice broke though “Marionette was it?” Marionette turns to the sound and finds a girl a little older than she was her eyes a piercing flame. The girl wore simple red robes that whipped behind her from the wind. “I suppose this is your first time being here, welcome to the realm of your soul” 

Marionette blinked looking from side to side “a soul realm?”

“Yes now summon your power and defeat me in battle only then I will teach you” Marionette doesn’t get the chance to open her mouth as Shu’s body is covered by a red and black light, flames lick at her robes eating them away and leaving skin tight scales that covered her body. Long sleeves end with clawed gloves and her head had two giant red and black ears shaped like a fengguan. A mask burned into existence, she opened her eyes revealing them to be slit like a reptiles. With fluid motion she grabs a tool attached to her waist shaped like a Chinese dragon. With a click the tongue spits out like a whip, Marionette isn’t fast enough to fully dodge the attack. She holds her side with the burning mark made by the weapon, scowling in determination she says the words.

“Tikki spots on”

Shu laughs and sends the whip around Marionette’s waist, with a good tug she throws the girl across the clouds. When Marionette lands her back bumps against something cool and metal, now she was in the locker room at her school. 

“Eager to learn eh” Shu chirps sending the whip at her again, Marionette thinks fast and opens the nearest locker to block it. Her eyes widen as the whip burns though the metal nearly cutting her fingers off, she grabs a schoolbook in said locker and chucks it at Shu. The distraction is enough to give her some distance as she races though the empty school. She calls for Tikki and grabs at her ears, the earrings were still there but Tikki was nowhere to be found. Shu’s laughter carries down the halls as Marionette runs to her homeroom classroom, ducking behind the teacher’s desk. 

Okay so just saying the phrase wasn’t working, but Tikki had to be here. She closed her eyes and concentrated, if this was her soul and had places like the real world then where would Tikki be? Her eyes open, it had to be where she first met Tikki. Slowly she peeks out from the desk ears straining for the sound of Shu, suddenly there’s a laugh behind her. 

Marionette stumbles to her feet while Shu slashes the desk into two pieces, the roads a blur as Marionette runs to her family’s bakery. She throws the door open and nearly slides into the wall but grabs the rail to her room, her heart is the only sound as she tears though the familiar surroundings. Pictures of Adrien clutter on the floor followed by sewing material and papers, but no mysterious kwami containing box. 

“It’s fitting to a ladybug” Marionette freezes as Shu steps into the room, her whip dragging behind her leaving a burned line in its path. Marionette swallows a growl as it cuts though her favorite picture of Alya and her, posing in their dresses before heading off to Chloe’s sweet sixteen. Shu uses the whip to grab around Marionette’s waist again, this time slowly dragging her closer “who are you Marionette?” Shu’s voice the thunder, the lightning her eyes.

Marionette doesn’t look at her in favor of the mess she was dragged though, the pictures of her family, her friends wearing her designs, Adrien surrounded by flowers during last year’s spring line. Her designs, her family, flowers...creation. Marionette’s eyes widened as it dawned on her; she was looking at this all wrong. Creation was everywhere, it came from her fingers when she turned fabric into dresses, it came from her heart when she made new friends, and it was in the air and in the ground. Shu temporary stopped pulling to gawk at leaves starting to grow under Marionette’s feet, “you want to know who I am?” Marionette asked smirking at the small gasp from the other.

“I am a designer, a student, a daughter and a friend. I am Marionette Dupain-Chang and I AM LADYBUG” she screamed the last part as her body was enveloped in a beautiful light. Red was an interesting colour, the life of every iron based being, music at its most untamed, flowers determined to stand out in the garden all stemmed from the colour of passion. The light didn’t die down but brightened the entire room; Shu had to shield her eyes. 

Marionette woke up with a gasp Tikki immediately by her side hugging with delight, Marionette returned the affection as she looked up at Shu. The elderly women smirked and reached forward “you did well Marionette the power of creation is yours”. Marionette took her hand and gasped as the red symbols appeared on her skin again, she felt her chest as the orange was taken by the red. The symbols flowed like the blood in her veins, wrapping like vines across her body. She almost whimpered as Shu dropped her hand and the marks slowly disappeared from view, but by simply concentrating she could feel them just beneath her skin. 

A gentle smile reached Shu’s face, Tikki did a twirl and sat in Marionette’s outstretched hand “all kwami leave a magic mark on their holders, but only the ones that truly deserve it pass Shu’s test” Tikki explained.

“The one you face also knows the spell of kwami” Shu began eyeing Tikki to confirm “then it must be him” she turned to open a large cloth bag and frowned at its empty interior “Marionette will you run to town and grab me some tea?”

Marionette blinked as if she wasn’t expecting that, “uh sure no problem” she replies taking the coins Shu handed to her. She writes down where she had to go and what place and nods determined to get it quickly. 

Marionette tugs at her sleeves as they step on the train to the nearest town “I hope Master Fu is okay…and the team! Oh no, I didn’t tell them I wasn’t in Paris” her hands slap against her face a little too hard. She lets out a whine rubbing the reddened skin.

Tikki giggled at Marionette’s typical freak out “Don’t worry Marionette I’m sure your team is fine”

Alya wacked her pen against her hand in an endless anxious motion, a text from Nino buzzes against her pocket and she glances at it quick enough that Ms. Mendeliev didn’t stop her lecture. Nino had asked if she had heard from either Marionette or Adrien, she shook her head in reply and Nino’s expression dropped not surprised but defeated anyway. Alya couldn’t blame him, it wasn’t uncommon for them to be late but absent wasn’t something Marionette would do. With Mr. Agreste in hiding Adrien probably was in a similar situation, was Marionette roped into it? Were they on the run together trying to get to safety? No way that girl would do that and not tell her right? She pulled her phone out again to check the countless messages she had sent Marionette demanding answers. 

Alya gasped as a hand rips it out of hers, Ms. Mendeliev glares at her “with all the school time we’ve missed you should be more concerned about class”. She puts the phone in her desk and hands Alya a piece of paper, “if you can’t concentrate then you can hand this to the principal” Alya takes the paper and quietly makes her way outside. 

“You alright kitto” Trixx asks poking his head out of her shirt, Alya sighs loudly but nods as she makes her way down the empty halls.

 

“Please…leave me alone” a small voice pleads running between large bookcases in the library, Masquerade chasing after her. She runs right into a corner and turns to the villain floating down to the ground, snakes spilling out from her cloak. The girl screams and swings her book at the reptiles, Masquerade smiles under her mask. 

Hawk moth has the same smile and inhales deeply as if he could smell the fear off the girl “nice work Masquerade, the fear of this girl will make her a perfect akuma”. The butterfly flies into his hands and he darkens it with his power and sends it out the window “fly my little akuma and darken her heart”.

Pollen taps her chin with a piece of lead she broke off a pencil a while back, a notepad in front of her. Her antenna glowed a little at the top to let her see in the dark purse, “let’s see, get her to understand her mistakes and learn from them…eh I’ll give it a pass” she checkmarks that one and moves to the next one. “Realise that saying mean things hurts leadership in the long run” she sighs “work in progress 500+ stings given so far” she adds the note while she speaks. “Remember important things to subjects to instill loyalty” Pollen blows a raspberry. “Stop wearing blue eye shadow… argh darn it, am I losing my sting?” Pollen whines to no one in particular leaning up against the sides of the purse. She looks back at her list only to see parts of it missing and other parts slowly bleeding away. She gasps and grabs the notepad in horror as the words rip off and fly out of the purse, screams following soon after “my handwriting isn’t that bad, what’s going on out there GAH!” she squeaks as the purse squishes in on her. 

Chloe whimpers staring up at the monstrosity that had blown into the classroom; for once Ms. Mendeliev was stunned into silence as the beast scanned over the students. It was a giant black dragon with a long neck and sharp horns on its head. It brought its massive head over everyone enjoying the frightened whimpers that came out. The dragon made eye contact with Nathaniel and grinned to show off its lovely knifes for teeth, ignoring the girls of the room. 

“Excuse you I am totally princess material” Chloe snapped drawing the dragons attention away; no one is surprised at her outburst. Nino uses the distraction to pull the fire alarm; the sound makes the dragon flinch then rear its head back with a roar. Student’s race out of the classroom eager to get away, Nath is right behind them only for the dragon to grab him in its jaws. 

Alya drops the now blank paper and runs into the library grabbing the doorway with one hand and holding on to keep her balance. Books lay all over the place with ink draining out of them and gathering into one massive blob, the akuma slowly floats out of it revealing her horrible form. She looked like she was made entirely of ink, and her mouth was far too large for any human. White light comes from her eyes and mouth dragging attention to them. Her head flopped to her shoulder like it had no bones and her face lit up with a grin seeing Alya. “Come to hear my story?” her voice making Alya’s blood run cold.

“Alya watch out” in a blink of an eye the akuma fires a shot of ink her way and Carapace appears blocking it with his shield. He grunts forcing the spray back and steps back until both of them are behind the door which Alya slams shut. The akuma stops her attack and the ink starts to spread over the library leaking under the door at an alarming rate. 

Carapace grabs her and they race down the hall trying to escape it, he shoots his grapple hook at the exit. Faster than Alya had ever seen him move he swings the shield under his feet and her into his arms. The grapple hook swings them out the door so quickly when they hit the stairs they go flying and hit the ground rather roughly.

Carapace mouths “whoa” as the ink crawls over the entire school, anyone that hadn’t already gotten out was trapped inside. The school transformed into a castle complete with archers firing arrows at them, Carapace gets to his feet and grabs Alya in that oh so cute princess hold. With his shield attached to his back it protected them from the black inky arrows, he slides into the closest ally out of the archers reach. 

He places her down and leans over to catch his breath, immediately straightening out once she turns to him. Alya smirks and puts her best supermodel walk on leaning close to him, “thanks for the save Carapace, but don’t expect a kiss as reward” she purrs making him blush terribly. 

“I don’t ha, that would be ridiculous” he squeaks and jumps back. Alya keeps her foxy expression as he shoots the grapple hook and tips an imaginary hat “stay safe Alya” he chirps then shoots off. 

Trixx pops out of her pocket with an equal expression “ready for Rena” he spins in the air then places his nubs on his hips. 

“You know it, Trixx let’s pounce” 

Adrien was trying out a great new hobby, catnapping. The radio played soft music in the messy bedroom. Since he still had to hide from Hawk moth Nathaniel had agreed to let him stay in his room while he went to school so long as he didn’t touch anything. Adrien was pretty bummed that he couldn’t go to school but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Duusu had given him the idea since she had been sleeping the whole morning away, guess she was up late last night on the train. A loud buzz comes from his pocket causing the model to jump three feet in the air and fall onto the floor. 

Plagg drops the comic he had been reading and watches Adrien pull out the phone responsible with an akuma alert in effect “time to go, Plagg claws out”.

Chat lands on his feet and gasps up at what was once the school, a giant castle with a stone tower that dwarfed the Eiffel tower. A dragon takes flight and lands at the top; someone grabs Chat from behind and hides him behind a tree. Chat almost thought it was Nino but that’s quickly dashed by when he sees Carapace let go of his suit. “Please tell me you’ve heard from Ladybug” the turtle says trying his best to appear non-worried and failing spectacularly.

Chat calls her number but nothing pops up, he shakes his head. Rena pops out of the tree making both of them jump back in surprise; she flips down and holds her flute up. “So who wants to storm a castle?” 

Chloe cried out as she’s thrown into fellow students trapped in a dungeon, the door slams shut with a loud clang. Ink stains her clothing and she doesn’t hold back bitter whining that no one even bothers to listen to.

“Would you shut up Chloe, whining about your clothes isn’t going to change anything” Alix snaps spitting out the word clothes like it was venom. She leans against the wall with one foot against it, Chloe scowls at her but doesn’t say anything. 

“I hope Nathaniel is okay” Rose mutters huddling with Juleka in the back of the dungeon.

Nath groans and forces his eyes open, finding he was lying on an unfamiliar floor. Last thing he remembered was getting swallowed by a dragon, he jumps up recalling that and looks around expecting to find it towering over him. The tower was straight out of Rapunzel complete with only a tiny window to allow sunlight in, no dragon to be seen. Cloth around his arms gets him to stare at the outfit he was now wearing; it was a shirt and jeans entirely black with no symbols or patterns. He’s confused obviously but now wasn’t the time to wonder what the wardrobe change was about.

He opens his bag expecting Duusu to fly out but nothing happens. He digs though the bag to find her then cries out and drops the bag which scatters its contents on the floor. He glares for a second at the pen that had pricked him and picks Duusu up; she was alive but fast asleep. “Duusu wake up” he whispers not noticing the smoky figure rising out of the floor. 

“She’s under a spell” 

Nath yelps and throws her behind his back before turning to the voice; the akuma’s features were more defined now looking like an evil enchantress. “I am Witchy words, my stories literally leap off the page” she purred walking towards him, Nath stood to back away but trips over a bed in the center of the room. Witchy picks up the pen and wiggles it at him, the pen transforms into a beautiful red rose. “You play a crucial role in this story, quiet now” she continues leaning over to bop his nose gently with the flower. Nathaniel’s eyes glaze over and he collapses onto the bed, Witchy grins and sets the rose in his hands. The rose turns black and covers him in ink while Witchy stands and heads towards the window. The butterfly mask appears over her face “phase one is complete my lord” she smiles as he praises her “starting phase two now, capture the cat”. 

 

“Excuse me-oh sorry-pardon me” Marionette says as she pushes though the crowd, she had never seen a market place so filled before. Merchants would throw samples of their merchandise and she would politely decline, focused on finding the tea shop Shu had told her about. 

She quickens her steps as the sign comes into view; inside the shop the smell of teas was almost overwhelming. An old man smile gently at her and Marionette hands him the note Shu had written, he adjusts his glasses then brings a finger up to tell her to wait a second. He heads into the back while Marionette rocks on her feet to entertain herself. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she opens a jar filled with unmarked tea leaves inside, nearly choking on the smell that comes out. The man comes back holding a cloth bag, Marionette smiles sheepishly taking the box and handing him the coins from Shu. It was too large to put in her bag so she holds it under her arm as she heads out into the crowd.

Now able to look at more things while she walked back to the station Marionette smiled at the paper decorations making the market look like a setting sun, she accidentally trips over her feet nearly dropping the tea. In a way only she could do she bumps against a stand with oranges and send them rolling down the road. She groans rubbing her poor rear only for a scream to pull her attention. A few stalls away in a jewelry stand a women and a man in a hood were tug of warring with a cloth bag. The man ripped the bag free and started to run through the crowd, before she could move the thief crashes into her dropping his bag. Marionette goes to grab hers only to discover they looked exactly the same, the thief grabs the nearest bag and races down the market. She opens the bag he left to find countless cell phones and pieces of jewelry. She groans and drops the bag at the stall he had stolen it from and begins her chase looking desperately for someplace to transform 

“There are too many people” she cries to no one in particular ducking behind a stall and spotting people who would see her, they give her strange looks as she tries another but there’s just as many people nearby. She squeezes though the crowd and cartoony flops between two buildings, her eyes fall on a trash can and sighs knowing there’s no other option. Hoping no one sees her she slides into the can and lets Tikki out. 

People gasp and point at the figure jumping across the rooftops; Ladybug spots the thief up ahead and charges towards him. She leaps into the air and is blinded by a flash of a bystander’s camera, when she blinks her vision clear there’s a giant paper dragon in her path. No time to avoid it she crashes into the decoration, the back of it hitting the stoves of a stall selling fried pork. Her yo-yo suddenly loses its grip on the old building and sends her into a free fall at the thief. 

The thief looks over his shoulder and gasps at the sight shooting towards him; the dragon’s roar sounds more like a teenage girl but didn’t take away from the threat. Smoke was behind the beast and his life flashed before his eyes as it crashed into him.

When the stars clear from his vision the thief scoots back in fear as the dragon lifts its head, two spotted arms reach up and pulls the head off. Ladybug throws the head down and uses her yo-yo to snag the bag from the thief before he could react “I’ll be taking that thank you very much” she says pulling out a teabag to check if they were in good shape. The thief is too dumbstruck to notice the police behind him until they take his arms to take him away, the crowd cheers and Ladybug has to shield her eyes from the flashes of cameras. With a “bug out” she zips onto the rooftops and takes off to Shu’s, waving to the crowds before disappearing into the evening. 

Witchy words smiles creepily as she peers into the cage that housed Chloe and the others, “Now what characters should you play” she says opening a book in her arms. The tittle of the book changes and she raises a hand at them ready to fire. 

“Hold on” Chloe jumps to her feet and stands in front of the cage the akuma lowers her arm and stares at Chloe curiously. “You turn us and you have way too many side characters, you should focus on deepening the story line with your main characters” 

Witchy opens her book and reads in silence for a moment “you’re right” Witchy breaths earning a gasp from the class.  
Chloe smirks and puts a hand on her purse as if to draw confidence from the kwami inside, “why don’t you go work on that fight scene up there?” as if on cue gunfire can be heard from the battle with the miraculous wielders. 

“Gun fire? That’s not supposed to be in the story” Witchy words snapped and raced up towards the battle leaving one guard in charge of watching them. 

Not wasting any time Chloe brings her phone out from behind her back and turns the gun noises off; gesturing to Sabrina to come forward she wordlessly pulls a hair pin out and hands it to Max. He nods in understanding as she pulls out the timer app and gives it a minute. She slides the phone under the cage and down the hall; it goes off distracting the guard long enough for Max to pick the lock. The door slams open and everyone races out giving war cries and tackle the guard to the ground. 

“That was an amazing plan, Chloe” Sabrina cheers throwing her arms around Chloe.

“Yeah now what do we do?” Kim chimes in and everyone gathers around her expecting a plan. 

“Uh…” Chloe feels her face turn warm under the attention she bumps her pointer fingers together, silently pleading for something to happen so she didn’t have to answer. A dragon’s roar is heard from above sparking a light bulb, “we need to get the drawbridge down so Ladybug can get inside and stop the akuma and get the rest of the prisoners out”. She picks up the helmet from the guard they knocked out “Ivan you’ve always really liked castles right, think you can figure out where we need to go” Ivan takes the helmet looking at her surprised she even knew that. But nods and places the helmet on his head. Everyone takes a moment to agree who was going to get the drawbridge and who was staying behind to get the rest of the school out. Chloe put a hand over her purse to calm Pollen inside, she was going to transform she just needed an opportunity to sneak away. 

The room at the top of the tower had gone deadly quiet, the blue marble floor made it look almost like a lake frozen in time. Slowly footsteps made their way to the bed in the middle of the room, pausing to loom over the sleeping boy. Nathaniel’s outfit had been changed once more to blue royal clothing with a long silken cape that pooled over the sides of the bed like a waterfall. His peacock miraculous for once being used to full beautiful effect for the outfit. The figure sat down beside him and gently ran a hand though his hair, she pulled her mask off and set it aside listening to the wind outside. She swallows nervously “rest now Nathalie I wish to speak to him alone” the purple light fades until it almost looks like she was normal. Other than her eyes being purple instead of blue, an untrained eye would think a human was there. She takes a moment to pull the kwami out from his jacket and place it in a cage that disappeared into a tiny portal she created, alone at last. 

With Nathalie resting in her mind E used her hand to trace the gold crown that sat in the boy’s hair “I don’t know why I want you, maybe because Hawk moth made you his property…I always want what isn’t mine…that’s what I remember anyway”.

 

Shu placed her teacup down with an awful clang “let me tell you the story of most evil kwami wielders I know, they called themselves the knights of sin”. Marionette takes a sip from her cup and nearly spits it out, it was so bitter she’d need an entire bag of sugar to finish it. Shu ignored her discomfort “a long time ago I was a teacher of the guardian temple, I taught potential guardians how to fight in both the real world and the soul realm”.

A class filled with students all preformed a left side kick and spun around before landing in a fighters stance. A young Shu walked among them moving arms up or adjusting stances if needed, her mouth moved to give another order only for an elder to wave her over. She rushes up the stairs and gives a small bow to him; his usual smile is gone as he speaks to her.

“A threat had entered our land; our elders knew they were after the ladybug of creation and black cat of destruction”

Shu held her ground among several other miraculous wielders, the fog parted to reveal a gang of knights each the colour of the rainbow. Their leader in the middle dressed in white, her face covered by a mask with a long mouth found on mosquitoes. They charged one another, Shu facing off against a purple ninja. She brought her whip out and he ran up to her and flipped over her grabbing her shoulders as he did, she turns to attack him only for it to be stopped by an identical whip now in the ninja’s hands.

The dragon and snake lashed at one another, Shu wrapped her whip around his head and burned his face setting the fabric around his face aflame. Afraid the ninja dropped his weapon and stumbled into the snow to stop the flames from consuming his flesh. Shu smiled cruelly but it didn’t last when a scream pierced the fog, it parted to reveal Ying as Ladybug with one of the swords of the white leader though her torso. 

“Monsters they were, who knows what evil they wished for to attack us. So my brother and Ying used their ultimate power to seal them away”

The cat like the one in the spell book grabbed the ladybug’s hand and held her dying body close to his chest. Collapsed on his knees it looked like an easy kill for the white lady, she brought her swords above her head and slammed them down to slice their heads off. But a pale green and red light stopped her blades in their tracks, the two hero’s continued their chant making the light brighter. The white lady’s mouth opens in a silent scream when they thrust their hand fingers laced with one another in her direction. The floor underneath her swallows her up while she fights uselessly against the force, her knights facing the same fate. Shu raised her whip to cheer but stopped as she spotted the purple ninja running off, she doesn’t go after him far more concerned with rushing to ladybug in a futile attempt to save her.

Tikki was surprised to feel that same sharpness as Shu described the funeral to her ladybug of nearly two hundred or so years ago, it was like it had only happened yesterday. 

“After months he dared to return for revenge and I was ready for him”

Shu watched some grass sway in the wind inside the temple, such plants were impossible to live outside in the cold mountains so to have them at all was a blessing. Loud footsteps make her turn to find the purple ninja from before, his breathing heavy as he limped towards her. Shu took a step back in surprise then held out a beautiful red ring around her finger. “Puff scales ignite” the little red kwami was sucked inside the jewel from his resting place on her shoulder. The ninja continued to stalk towards her as her body was covered in flames. 

Shu attacked with such fury her whip glowed like dragons fire, the ninja dodged lazily and got hit countless times but never reacted in pain. Shu finally stops in order to regain her breath, the ninja’s body began to glow softly making her hair stand on end.

“Something had changed…so I did what is frowned upon-“

Shu wrapped her whip around her arm and ran in close; the ninja’s expression remained unchanged as she hit the back of his knees forcing him to the ground. She uncurls the whip and snags it around a choker around his neck; she rips it off and sends it above her head. Then throws it to the ground and grabs his shirt with her free hand to pull him close to her face. Her eyes widen when his transformation remains in place and he finally gives an evil smile then pushes her away with such power it couldn’t have been kwami magic alone. Forced on her back Shu gasped as he pounced on her and slashed her across the face using claws dipped in black poison and her own weapon. Shu cries out and covers one eye in pain; the ninja stood up away from her and stared her down admiring his work. The temple began to shake and crumble, the ninja turns and runs deeper inside leaving her to realise he was just a distraction. 

“I failed my guardians I didn’t deserve the miraculous anymore…” Shu finished her cup and stood up, Marionette’s mouth felt dry unable to come up with something to say. Shu  
opened an old chest and pulls out the choker she described in her story, “I took this to remember my failure but perhaps you can set things right”. 

Marionette accepts the choker and traces a thumb over the cracked jewel, “what do you need me to do?” 

 

Rena landed on the ground and stuck her tongue out, mocking the guards that charged her and jumping out of the way of their attacks. Chat and Carapace did similar motions causing two groups of guards to slam into each other when the two leapt away last second. Meanwhile the real boy’s edge along the bushes surrounding the castle, Rena and her illusions continue their dance while Chat gets them over the moat using the baton as a balance beam. Carapace had almost made it across when the dragon lands on the ground ready to tear the hero’s apart, the earthquake the beast created makes the turtle lose his balance and plummet into the water below. 

Rena groans rubbing her side from the impact of hitting the ground; her illusions couldn’t hold up and disappear in a poof. The dragon bears its teeth and roars at her, Rena uses her flying fox ability for all it’s worth as the dragon unleashes its fiery breath. “Guys you almost got the door open?” she cries into her ear piece yipping when the flames pass her head nearly burning her hair off. 

“Working on it” Chat replies helping Carapace out of the water, then extending said baton to get them both high enough in the air to jump over the castle walls. Carapace grips the baton tighter then necessary and swallows hard at the height they had to reach. “Don’t worry Carapace you might be scared of heights but you’re turtle-y safe with me”

Carapace glares at him “would you just get us dow-OOOOOWWWN” his deadpan turns into a scream when Chat drops them both without warning, with practiced ease he lands them both safely and grins cheekily. Before they can move to the drawbridge a puddle of ink appears in front of them, morphing into Witchy words. 

“Time to play your part little kitty, hand over your miraculous and I’ll set the princess free” she purrs holding a hand out. The boys get into their best fighting stance and charge, Carapace tossing the shield into her legs while Chat swung for her head. Neither hit their mark as she leaps out of reach and opens her book, she points a finger at Chat “let’s put the cat in the bag” she announces sending a blob of ink that transforms into a bag. Chat is about to pounce away when Carapace’s shield flies in front of him taking the attack, the shield is swallowed by the bag and disappears without a trace. Chat looks towards the tower and then towards Carapace, with a wordless nod Carapace heads toward the bridge and Chat leaps over to the tower. Witchy is confused for a moment but decides to go after Chat, firing ink at him as he quickly scaled the tower. 

Two guards pace back and forth in a hallway, their loud armour clanks loudly off the stone walls. They stop when a loud whistle gets their attention, “hey over here” Alix calls using her hands as a megaphone. The guards give chase and she races down the hall, just when it looks like she’s going to be caught she ducks into a room and a lance is used as a trip wire sending the guards into the walls. The rest of the group gets to work tying them using shoe laces and whatever else they had on hand. 

Chloe gets a text on her phone and grins “Sabrina and her group just freed the rest of the prisoners” she announces and gets cheers from her group in return. “Come on let’s get them out of here” she orders being the first to start running to the giant wheels to draw the bridge. Ivan, Alix and Kim behind her, Chloe couldn’t help but wonder if this was what it felt like to be the leader rather than the boss. She stands aside to allow Kim and Ivan to get the gears going and send the bridge down.

“Ack, no bad dragon” Rena yells scaling around the tower trying to get away from the flames and teeth, the dragon roared nearly slicing her to bits. She shoots to the ground and flies though the stables, the dragon close behind setting it aflame. Rena just makes it out before it collapsed with a broom stuck between her legs like a witch. 

“Rena, watch where you’re flying” Chat yells into her ear piece, Rena throws an apology out and ditches the broom behind her then heads straight up into the sky. If she had to keep this dragon busy until Ladybug showed up she would at least make it blind in the clouds.

“Students and staff are out safely” Carapace reports watching the last student make their way out of the castle and into the safe zone, not noticing Chloe had turned back to do her thing. 

“Good now get this akuma off my tail” Chat orders pouncing off the wall and grabbing on again after letting gravity drop him a few feet, Witchy shoots past him intending to tackle and fires her ink down at him. Carapace groans but starts to head towards the tower, stopping in his tracks when he passes certain equipment on the castle grounds. 

“Hey guys” Queen Bee chirps using her antenna like a headset a helicopter would have “sorry I’m late, what’s the plan Ladybug?”

“Ladybug ain’t here” Rena states coming to a stop in the clouds, she looked desperately around trying to find where the dragon had gone. She turns 90 degrees and somehow manages to dodge the mouth open to eat her, her hands grab hold of the horns on its head. 

“Rena, fly the dragon down here, Bee help me get this thing up” Carapace orders waving Bee down to a catapult he was moving into position. There was also a giant crossbow like device used to shoot ropes at castles when invading. Bee takes a moment to look at the ammo he would have to load and the top of the tower; she sighs then flies down to Carapace and easily hoists a massive rock into the catapult. 

Rena steers the dragon using the horns and makes it shoot down towards her teammates, Bee sticks her tongue out in concentration then fires the rock at the perfect moment. The rock sails towards the dragon but it easily destroys it with its fire breath, but while it’s distracted with that Carapace shoots the crossbow thing and the massive rope wraps around the dragons neck. 

Bee grabs hold of the rope and digs her heels in facing the biggest tug of war she had ever faced. The dragon nearly swoops into the tower and by instinct she pulls it the other way, the massive beast comes crashing down to the Earth.

“I’m still on this thing you know” Rena cries pressing against the dragon as they crash though several buildings. Once they stop the fox leaps off seconds before the rest of a building comes crashing down on the beast pinning it in place. 

“My word that’s a lot of damage” Witchy words breaths adjusting her glasses as if she thought that would change the picture, she doesn’t see Chat until he’s tackled her to the ground. She pulls her head from the dirt “Are you crazy? That was at least three storeys”.

“Don’t you mean stories?” Chat chirps plucking the book from the ground and ripping it in half, Bee readies her dipper ready to glob another akuma butterfly but nothing comes out.

Witchy throws her head back to cackle “ha in your face miraculous hero’s, my akumantized object is somewhere you’ll never find-“

“It’s in the tower” Chat deadpans making Witchy sweat and ramble out a bunch of rubbish to try and confuse them.

“I’ll….uh never let you get it, I may be outnumbered but you’ll never be able to face another creature I bring to life from-“ she had stood up and had a blob of ink swirling in her hands when Bee dumps a honey trap right on her head. 

“Bee” Chat cries throwing both hands in the air.

“What, does it really matter if I freeze the akuma or the…akuma” Bee states putting her dipper behind her shoulders like she’d seen Chat do with his baton a few times. Chat points a finger and opens his mouth but he can’t think of a good argument before Bee shoots off to the top of the tower. 

Queen Bee lands inside the tower and readies her dipper seeing a figure by the bed, without the mask it doesn’t quite click that it was masquerade looming over him. Just a sad older lady with purple eyes, the lady looks up and she fades away like she was a ghost. A chill rides up Bee’s spine but she convinces herself it was part of some story this was made from, she takes a deep breath and approaches the bed. 

Ladybug jumps in front her school and races to the roof where the team was waiting; taking a breath before speaking “I’m so sorry guys I had to head to China last minute and totally forgot to tell you I wouldn’t be here…” she trails off looking to the school then the city. Not a brick out of place “I thought there was an akuma”.

“There was, but with our teamwork we were able to contain it with minimal damage” Chat announces proudly sticking out his chest.

Ladybug smiles proudly at them “you guys are amazing” she holds her fist out for a pound it then readies her yo-yo. 

Bee holds out a blackened rose and snaps it in two, the flower turned into a pen and an akuma took to the air. Ladybug caught it with relative ease and readies to release it when Rena stops her, “Before you do that would you mind posing for a photo? Alya really wants one of you releasing the akuma from a different angle”.

Ladybug shrugs and follows Rena’s instructions for the pose which included a blind fold over her eyes “Rena this seems a little silly” she says once it’s been tied securely in place.

“It’s so you look like the justice statue, she’ll add in the scales digitally later” Rena and the others smile nervously.

“Oh…okay then, Miraculous ladybug”

Rena drops the biggest illusion she had ever done over the city revealing at a good chunk of buildings were crumbled to the ground or on fire by the trapped dragon. All fixed by Ladybug’s power without her ever knowing they all share an extra fist bump to celebrate getting away with it.

 

Nathaniel groans forcing himself to get off the table he was lying on; he takes a moment just to look around the room. An old storage room is looked like, dust as thick as flour caked chairs and tables thrown in reckless abandon. Duusu, he brought his hand into his jacket to find she wasn’t anywhere on him. Footsteps are heard coming into the room “Adrien?” escapes his lips before he could stop them. 

He turns to find a newly recharged Ladybug staring him down “you know where Adrien is?” she demands then her eyes look slightly above his head. She gasps and her yo-yo is out ready to fight, Nath feels a cold wind at his neck and slowly turns his head to find a slightly transparent Masquerade staring Ladybug down. 

“You have something that doesn’t belong to you” Masquerade hisses, Ladybug doesn’t break eye contact but pops open her yo-yo to pull out what looked like a necklace. Masquerade makes no move to grab it but her excitement is noticeable, Ladybug runs a thumb over the dull but smooth crystal.

“Nathaniel get out of here, I don’t want you caught in the crossfire”

It takes a moment for Nath to realize Ladybug was talking to him but despite making an effort his legs remained planted between the two. His eyes drawn to the choker in her hands, like it was calling to him. A powerful headache pounds into existence forcing Nath to his knees, Ladybug calls for him but she’s cut off Masquerade laughing. Ladybug briefly looks behind her to find Chat behind them eyes wide in fright but body ready to defend his lady if need be. 

When she looks to Masquerade she gasps finding she had disappeared, Nath had stopped clenching his head and now just sat motionlessly on his knees. 

“That doesn’t belong to you” 

Ladybug jumped not expecting that from the redhead, his voice suddenly sounded so rough and cold. Then he began to laugh, a little giggle at first that evolved into near hysterical laughing. A cold wind rips the choker out of Ladybug’s hands making it land right in front of him. Chat tries to move but his limbs feel frozen as Nath picks up the choker and its snakelike design comes to life and wraps around his neck. Nathaniel looks up from the floor his hair parting to reveal eyes that didn’t belong on him, lavender and crazed. 

Slowly Nathaniel gets to his feet, the silence between them deafening.

“You want to know where Adrien is?” he asks at last, his voice sounded like two people were talking at once, Chat’s chest feels tight. He can’t see Ladybug’s face but he knew she was begging for an answer. Nath points a finger at Ladybug

“He’s right behind you”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was worried I was running out of inspiration juice for this fic, recently I've only had ideas for the sequel. So I decided it's time we bring this baby to a close.


	23. Hawk moth's wish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone else get the joke with Shu's weapon? I didn't even realize I made it when I wrote it and laughed at myself for like five minutes.

“Adrien”

Chat had his eyes glued to the floor; he couldn’t bring himself to look at Ladybug. This wasn’t how he hoped the reveal would go at all. He forced his head up to look at her “my la…”

He doesn’t finish as Ladybug ran right by him, mouth open he watches her and sees what she sees. Masquerade has her grip tightly on Adrien; she laughs and shoots down the hall Ladybug hot on her heels.

“Ladybug, help me” Adrien’s voice bounces off the walls.

Chat shakes his head and lunges for her “Ladybug no-“he’s cut off by a rope wrapping around his mouth and pulling him to the ground. The rope turned into pencil dust as soon as it hit the floor. 

If Ladybug heard him she didn’t show it. Adrien’s eyes are wide as the villain flies though the gym and into the courtyard, she grits her teeth using her yo-yo to keep up.

Chat groans and bares his teeth at E; the redhead cocked his head to the side with a smirk that never left his lips. He ran his tongue over his teeth as he walked towards the cat, “Can’t let you ruin our fun” he chirps as if Chat wanted to wreck a birthday party. 

“What do you want?” Chat snapped grabbing his baton and pointing it at the others neck, E’s smile didn’t look right on Nath’s face. 

“Isn’t that obvious?” he spoke with a chuckle “Hawk moth and I need your miraculous, if you hand it over now we can skip a lot of needless struggle but please refuse”. His eyes flash and Chat can’t hide the chill that ran up his spine. The purple eyes didn’t belong on a human, they belonged on a snake. 

Chat growls, absolutely no way he was putting up with this and letting his lady get hurt. “Sorry Nath” he swings the baton hard enough the resulting sound echo’s in the room. E steps back from the blow then cracks his jaw back into place. With another creepy grin he falls to all fours and lunges at him, Chat snarls using the momentum against E sending into the table.

From the ground E draws several m’s in the dust which spring into birds like the ones on a child’s drawing. E gets to his feet and reaches for Nathaniel’s bag tucked beside the table. He takes his time going through the sketchbook while Chat fights against the birds, their cawing almost like hyenas giggling as they try to peck the cat. 

E flips the page and smiles at the drawing, Chat looks to him as the final bird falls to dust. “You know there’s a fun bonus to using this body” E chirps as he rips the page out, “I can use his powers”. E’s hand glows purple and he turns the page towards Chat, before he could move the tree on the page comes to life sending its roots into him. 

Chat crashes though the wall into the library fighting against the tree roots, each swing turns the root back into pencil dust that spills onto the floor. With a final swing the tree drawing dies and a chuckle makes him look up to the second floor. Similar to the first Evilistrator attack E stares him down from above; although this time he leaned on the railing with a cattish grin. “I don’t have time to play with you” Chat growls and stabs his baton on the ground.

“Then why don’t I entertain him for a bit” 

Chat turns to find Carapace taking a bite out of an apple “I’d rather be at lunch with my friends but alas…” E scowls at him as Chat throws him a thankful wave and takes off. Carapace tosses the apple in the air looking up at E “What’s gotten into you dude?” he blurts to fill the silence that had fallen.

E chuckles opening Nath’s drawing book “that’s a good way of putting it” 

Carapace readies his shield as another paper falls to the floor, the image coming to life ready to fight. Bright red shoulder pads, way too much eyeliner and a ridiculous thing on its head that wobbled when it moved. Carapace smirks as the ink bubbler spins his wand in challenge, “oh this is going to be fun”.

Carapace leaps onto the nearest bookcase to avoid the bubbles sent his way than climbs to the top. Carapace runs towards him and back flips over the next stream of bubbles, in midair he grabs his shield and chugs it at the bubbler. The bubbler dodges the shield easily by taking to the air, the disk bounces off the wall behind it and starts shooting around the library like a bouncy ball. 

“Nice aim” E chirps in amusement.

“Wasn’t aiming for him” Carapace chirps back with a cheeky grin, E’s tenses in alarm looking to the left seconds before the shield crashes into him. 

The bubbler rushes to aid its creator with Carapace close behind, with its back turned Carapace shoots his hook around the bubbler and swings him to the bottom floor. The bubbler’s form turns into pencil dust the second it hits the floor. 

“I’ve always wanted to kick that fashion disasters butt, thanks for-oh crap dude your side” 

E raises a brow at the hero’s concern and follows his eyes to his torso; the shield had sliced his skin and a small amount of blood had begun to soak his shirt. He gets to his feet almost in a trance watching the stain grow bigger, breaking out of it when he hears Carapace running toward him. 

A nervous laugh like a child in trouble escapes his lips as E turns and runs away. Carapace grabs his shield sliding like a baseball player and gives chase. E had raced to and follows him into a small closet. 

He freezes at the doorway; E had drawn a childish sun on the wall using the blood from the wound. E’s hand slaps the centre of the bloody sun making it glow bright red. Carapace brings his shield up just before the fire hits his face, the force of the flame sending him across the room and into the bookcase. The hard hit sends both the books and the bookcase on top of him. 

 

Ladybug grunted as her feet pounded over the rooftops of Paris, Masquerade dangles Adrien behind her like a cat toy and launches off to the top of the Eiffel tower. 

“You want him so badly?” Masquerade purrs holding Adrian out at an arm’s length, Ladybug moves to grab him. But Masquerade reacts first and throws Adrien out of her reach sending him into a free fall. He looks to Ladybug and cries for her yo-yo; quickly Ladybug throws her yo-yo towards him with a cheer as he catches it. She lands against the nearest metal beam to hold against the pull from the momentum, the string tight against the metal. 

Something felt wrong; the string was swaying gently yet was completely quiet. Slowly Ladybug pulls Adrien up and falls to her knees in shock, blinking rapidly not trusting her eyes. Adrian had grabbed the yo-yo with his hands, it hadn’t wrapped around his…

No matter what Ladybug thought the evidence was staring her right in the face, Adrien’s lifeless body with a red mark on his neck by the string. “No, no, no” Ladybug pleads unwrapping the rope and slapping his face gently “Adrien please get up, Adrien”. 

“Ladybug” Chat appears behind her and places a hand on her shoulder, Ladybug’s entire body shakes and she doesn’t resist him when he pulls her into a hug. “It’s okay I’m here now” he says while she openly cries against him.

“Chat I…”

“Got cha”

Two snaps by her ears and Ladybug feels her transformation fall, eyes wide in betrayal at her partner. He backs away with a smirk on his lips as he holds up both of the miraculous earrings one in each hand. 

“Wow Ladybug he really is your weakness” Sand falls off Chat leaving a female in his place, an orange suit with white patches on the chest and black elbow gloves. Tall fox ears on her head and flute in one hand, Marionette’s mouth was open in shock as the girl threw her head back and laughed. The Adrien next to her also turned to sand and was blown away in the wind.

“Lila”

The girl lost her laugh and pointed her flute at Marionette in a threatening manner “I am Volpina, the true mistress of illusion and your undoing” she sticks her tongue out and back flips away from Tikki charging for the earrings. Without another word Volpina jumps off the tower and flies off leaving Marionette and Tikki alone.

Marionette can’t panic, her mind still processing what just happened. Volpina was back, Volpina was back and had just stolen her miraculous…Volpina….Volpina….

“What do we do?” Tikki cries 

Volpina…Volpina…Rena! Marionette yanks her phone out so quickly she nearly drops it down the tower, “Alya and Rena have to have contact if they exchange photos and chocolate she can help”.

 

“Oh yeah, this is what I want after we transform” Trixx purrs slowly licking at the chocolate in his arms.

“That’s what you say about every new treat I give ya, you know I can’t afford that” Alya says eyeing the kwami as he takes his dear sweet time enjoying it. If he didn’t hurry up she was going to get detention for sure and there was no way she was going to let him in her bag until he finished after what happened last time. 

“But I’m serious this time, the chocolate is perfectly creamy, the fudge is gooey, and the real crispy bacon on the top is absolutely divine. It must be eaten slowly so every bite is savored” Trixx dreamily drones on about it while Rena answers her phone. 

“Girl where have you been, I’ve been calling for hours. Are you and Adrien on the run? Are you guys in some-“

“Alya” Marionette snaps effectively shutting her up, “you have to listen very carefully, I need you to contact Rena immediately”.

Trixx pauses on his treat watching Alya’s face go from confused to shocked to looking like she was about to faint. Alya takes a deep breath “is Ladybug still up there? Can she get down?”

“She disappeared while I was calling you; please don’t put this on the lady blog just get Rena to help her” Marionette replied trying her hardest not to hyperventilate.

“Rena’s on her way, get yourself somewhere safe” Alya says then ends the call, Trixx looks to his chocolate with the largest puppy eyes he could manage. 

Alya adjusts her necklace so it sat atop her shirt “Volpina’s back and we have to stop her”.

Trixx blinks then rams the rest of his treat into his mouth “alright let’s go, I’ve been aching to kick that fake foxes butt since we first met”. 

“Trixx let’s pounce”

 

“Come on Ladybug” Chat whispers tapping against the call button as he launched though the city, he was too distracted to notice the figure leaping towards him until it’s tackled him. Both of them come crashing down into the subway sending people screaming to get out of the way. Chat pulls his face to glare at E “I thought Carapace was babysitting you”.

E sticks his tongue out like a snake, “eh I left him to hit the books”. Chat can’t move in time and E pounces on him sending them both into a train that had stopped and was currently dropping off passengers. Chat swings the baton only for it to clang against the various metal poles inside the coach, E slithers around them and kicks Chat down to the ground. A crowd begins to form outside the coach and people bring out their phones to record.  
E opens his mouth so wide it was almost unhinged with an awful hiss; Chat rolls to his feet and throws a punch to E’s throat. E jumps back bringing a hand over the choker protectively, Chat smirked and started swinging for it, how nice that the possible weak spot was a large glowing gem. Almost like a video game. 

E hisses as the baton hits against his hand nearly touching the miraculous underneath, he slithers out of the way of the next attack and launches into the next coach Chat close behind. 

When he enters the coach the place is silent, Chat keeps his eyes close to the ground expecting him to be hiding under the seats. He doesn’t see E crawling from the suitcase storage to the wall; E pounces on Chat sending his head into one of the many metal poles with a loud ping. While his head is still pounding E flips him onto his back and uses his own baton to press against his neck. 

“Funny how history repeats itself” E purrs putting his weight onto the baton, Chat’s arms shake as he tries to bench press the weapon off. Since that wasn’t working he twists the baton sharply to his right and knees E in the bottom knocking him off balance. E falls ungracefully to the ground and Chat gets to his feet baton back in his hands.

Chat charges aiming to strike the choker but is caught off guard by E snaking his arm around the baton and pinning it in his armpit. One hand grabbed Chat’s ringed hand by the wrist and forces it against the door the other hand grabbed Chat’s throat and glowed softly “What was your special move called again?” E hisses.

Chat felt his mouth move on its own “Cata-Cataclysm” the power forms on his hand. Chat meets E’s crazed eyes “no what are you doing?-NO, NO” his heart nearly beat out of his chest as E makes Nath touch the powered hand. Chat shuts his eyes tightly not wanting to see his friend rot away, the hands drop him and he falls to his knees. 

E’s giggle makes him open them again, E is waving with his hand swirling with black dots the same as when he used cataclysm. “Didn’t think I was going to kill him now did you? I still got stuff to do” he sounds offended but his attention is stolen by pain coming from the hand. Parts were starting to rot under the power of destruction revealing muscle underneath; he turns it transfixed by the flesh continuing to decay. E smiles in delight “now if that what it does to him-“he pauses to stare at the onlookers “-what do you think it will do to them?” he chirps in challenge. Chat growls and launches himself at E, no way was he letting E use his power to hurt anyone. 

“Get out of the way. Akuma, akuma” Chat screams as E starts to run towards a group of people, they take on look at the rotten hand and scatter in panic.  
Security starts to usher them to safety while Chat gets on all fours to chase E as he heads right for a man helping an elder escape. E reaches for him and Chat extends the baton into the arm forcing E to catch himself with his other hand.

The man’s face pales as E looks up with his eyes glowing, E looks at the tattoo on the man’s arm then grins. The man screams as the tattoo of a bull rips off and comes to life, like something out of Alien the bulldog tattoo on his chest pulls off as well. 

Chat rolls over the bull and smacks it into ink as the first minute passes on his timer. He bites his lip cartwheeling around the bulldog and giving it the same fate. E takes off much to the man’s relief; Chat’s belt tail spins like a cheetah’s as he sharply turns to follow him. Chat gasps seeing E’s newest target, Justin Extra desperately pulled at his shirt caught in the train’s door. Chat pounces on E sending them down into the tracks on the opposite side, his counter drops to the final paw but he pays it no mind in favor of slamming the rotten hand into the ground. Cataclysm rusts the tracks leaving them dangerous and unstable, but it was better than on a person.

“Looks like you’re running out of time kitty” E purrs throwing Chat into an ad for cat food, Chat narrows his eyes but doesn’t say anything. 

“We could say the same for you” A voice cries followed by an orange and a yellow light bursting into the station. Rena and Bee land beside Chat and pose in a way that’s so scripted E has to chuckle at it. Rena turns to Chat “go recharge-“ she’s cut off by screams and turns back to a black smoke that had appeared in front of E. 

Masquerade bows then floats to the floor, a portal appeared behind her back making the hero’s think E was using it to escape. But as soon as the portal disappears the unmistakable red head bolts towards the exit. 

“I got him” Rena cries shooting off after him, Chat hesitates to leave Bee alone with Masquerade but doesn’t have much of a choice. 

“I’ll bee right back” Chat calls launching out of view, Bee summons her scepter wondering if he just said a pun or not. 

Rena squints gaining on the redhead though the crowd, with a war cry she pounces onto him sending them both sliding on the sidewalk. 

“I’ve been waiting for this” a female voice chirps underneath her, Rena yelps as the illusion falls revealing Volpina. The fox villain grabs her by the shoulders and sends them both into the air; Rena clenches her teeth as they smash though dozens of glass windows on a nearby building. “And I wanted some payback for stealing my name” Volpina laughed throwing them both though an office then down into a carnival that had just finished setting up for the day. 

The foxes land and circle one another, Volpina launches first and Rena sends her flying into the merry go round. Rena pounces onto the ride and begins swinging the flute, Volpina counters and the weapons get locked together. “When I win I’ll prove to Paris who the real fox is” Volpina declares tripping Rena over a bench on the ride. 

“You wish” Rena hums getting to her feet, “but I’m the only miraculous fox around here”. Volpina growls and glares at Rena’s necklace, she spins her flute twice then punches the control panel to her right. The rides music starts up and begins to move.

“Well then why don’t we play a little game?” Volpina pulls the real miraculous earrings out and holds them out teasingly “winner gets the others miraculous”. Volpina plays a few notes on her flute while Rena holds her necklace protectively; several more Volpina’s appear and charge Rena. 

Rena grabs one of the poles and spins her body around it to smack the two illusions turning them back into sand. Volpina smirks catching the leg before it could hit her and flinging her off the ride, Rena lands on her feet and jumps into the next ride: the bumper cars. 

Volpina follows and jumps to the nearest car only for it to poof away once she touched it, she face plants and Rena takes the opportunity to grab her hair and throw her into the nearest real car. Volpina recovers and swings her flute hitting Rena in the gut, with yowls that didn’t quite sound human the two engages in a sword fight with their flutes. The fight continues into the games section where Volpina grabs hold of a strong man’s hammer and attempts to flatten Rena’s head. Rena slides underneath the swing like she was playing an epic guitar solo, the hammer instead taking out a popcorn machine. 

Volpina growls and switches her attack style; she throws the flute to the ground and charges on all fours. Volpina pounces on Rena before she could get up and opens her mouth to reveal fangs dripping with black poison, “Masquerade gave me a little gift” she purrs tightening her grip on Rena’s wrists. 

Rena screams as Volpina’s fangs plunge into her neck, the few seconds it took felt like an eternity to Rena. Volpina sits up wiping some poison from her lips “now the real fun can begin”. 

Rena groans as Volpina jumps off her, slowly getting to a sit up position “do you just freaking bite me?” she snaps using her flute to pull up to her feet. Volpina grins like a naughty child and skips away begging to be chased. Rena is more than eager to do so and on all fours to boot, Volpina shoots off into a dark red building. 

Rena bangs into a mirror and gets to her feet looking at dozens of mirror’s surrounding her. She hears Volpina laugh behind her and spins to slam her only for another mirror to shatter into pieces. 

“You know what’s fun about demonic powers?” Volpina purrs circling around Rena like a predator “the negative energy”. She appears in one mirror which Rena immediately destroys with a satisfying crash “I can taste it, the fear, the doubt the anger and shame” she continues hissing against Rena’s ear, Rena’s swing is sluggish this time. Volpina’s eyes darken as her poison begins to affect, eagerly she zips by the fox sometimes attacking with claws ripping out hair or tearing fabric. Rena’s vision blurs and the light above her is too bright, her breathing sounds too loud and slow.

“Alya”

Rena jerks in the direction of her mother’s voice; did Volpina know how to make audio illusions as well? 

“I know you love super heroes but this is pathetic” her mother continued ice on her usual warm tone, Rena’s eyes widened trying to ignore it to find  
Volpina. Screams made her flinch and she looks to the sound to find her sisters huddled together terrified. Instinctively she brings a hand out to reach for them fake ears drooping as they scoot away tears falling from their faces. 

“I won’t be fooled by Hawk moth again” Rena turns to find Ladybug glaring at her arms crossed, Chat leaned on her shoulder claws ready to strike. Rena puts her hands over her ears and falls to her knees as all the illusions start talking at once. 

Volpina crawls onto Rena’s passed out body cocking her head to the side with a smirk on her lips, now all she had to do was take her miraculous.  
Rena chokes on a sob as the illusions voices start to mix uncontrollably, she grits her teeth to concentrate. They were illusions…and she was their mistress, she stands tall and stamps her foot. 

“QUIET” an orange light surrounds Rena’s body then fires out as a shock wave, destroying the illusions in an instant.

Volpina’s claws grasp the miraculous only for it to light up, she can barely mouth “What” before Rena punches her hard enough she’s sent flying into one of the mirrors. She could hear the sound of a flute playing a few short notes as she stumbles to her feet.

Rena gets to her feet using her flute to steady herself “you thought an illusionary spell would hold me” she hisses taking her first step. Volpina backs up against the wooden frame as Rena continues to stare her down, “girl that was a mistake”.

Volpina gasps as two more Rena’s appear beside the fox hero, yet her flute was nowhere near her lips. Volpina yelps and swings wildly at them, one hit vanishes in smoke only to be taken by two more. Nine Rena’s surround Volpina taking her blows and vanishing for only a moment then reappears as if the attack never landed. She couldn’t tell who was real or illusion, the remaining mirrors reflected the illusions making it seem like there were thousands. So she did the only logical thing she could think of she shot for the ceiling and blasted through it. 

Volpina hits the ground with a bang, without thinking she accepts a hand offered to her when she stands up. She looks to face Rena and jumps back with a yelp. The act makes her stumble and fall right into a tank filled with water for the dunking chair game. 

She comes up with a gasp while Rena just laughs at her “looks like I win, now hand over what you stole” she commands smacking her flute against her hand like a policeman would his baton. 

Volpina growls but her fangs hold no threat to Rena “never-“ Volpina glances up then shoots into the air. “-Masquerade will grant my wish I will be the one true fox”. Rena gasps seeing Masquerade in the sky opening her cloak to swallow Volpina, the fox vanishes within the fabric. Masquerade gives the Queen’s style wave then vanishes into one of her portals before Rena could stop her. 

Rena’s eyes widen in horror “oh no Bee!” 

Thanks to the mirror Rena still had two illusions before her miraculous started to lose power, still she’s cautious as she lands in the busted subway. The place was absolutely torn to shreds from Masquerades claws, Rena has to use her night vision to see properly. She runs up to a yellow object and picks it up to see it was Bee’s weapon in its closed form. She looks up to see the entrance to the tunnels, “Hold on Queenie I’m coming”. 

 

Duusu groans forcing her eyes to open, at first all she sees is black but soon it forms into metal bars with something in the distance. She jumps up and tries to phase though the cage only to bounce back yelping from a small electric shock. Duusu looks towards the echoing footsteps to find Gabriel walking past with a large book in his hands. He doesn’t even spare a glance when she growls focused more on setting the book down on what looked like an altar. Duusu blinks looking more at the details of the room, in the darkness she could make out the remains of dead plants and dirt where the cold metal floors ended. Gabriel stood at the altar with many benches facing him; behind him was a giant metal butterfly and what looked like a white coffin. Slowly it clicks where she was and her entire body begins to vibrate in rage, “how dare you”.

“HOW DARE YOU!” 

Gabe looks up unfazed from the bird’s outburst, “HOW DARE YOU! THIS WAS HER GARDEN YOU MONSTER” Duusu screamed smashing against the cage not caring about the static shock she got each time.

“Duusu please…” a pathetic voice whimpers beside her, Duusu stops her tantrum to stare at him. Nooroo peered into the cage eyes almost hallow of emotion “there’s nothing we can do”.

Duusu’s eyes widened and she flew as close as she could to him “Nooroo you loved this garden” Nooroo nodded looking to the floor.  
He swallowed dryly “I’m sorry but I can’t-“

“Nooroo come here” Gabe commands from across the room, Nooroo spares one last look at Duusu before obeying his master. Duusu fires the best stare she can at him, once she got out of this cage he was going to pay. The butterflies cover the man and then fly off reveling Hawk moth in Gabe’s place.

A black fog spits out from the ceiling and forms into Masquerade, she opens her cloak and Master Fu falls out getting a face full of cold steel. 

“E should be almost finished with his task, I assume he is on his way with Chat now” Masquerade drones watching Fu like a hawk. 

Hawk moth’s walks over to the smaller man and stamps his cane in front of Fu. “Do you know why we’ve brought you here Guardian?” 

Fu gets to his feet and matches Hawk moth’s stare “You wish me to activate the ultimate power” he answers crossing his arms. “I will not help you Hawk moth, the balance of the worlds will shift too dangerously-“

“Which is exactly what we want” Masquerade cuts him off placing a hand on his shoulder, his breaths in quickly in fear. Her mask had moved to the side of her head revealing her face, but the eyes held a different soul then before. 

“Who are you?” Fu breaths before he could stop himself. The woman smirks and puts a hand over her chest as if offended.

“Why Fu, I’m shocked” her voice hisses and she brings her face right next to his “after everything we’ve been though”. She puts the back of her hand down his cheek concentrating on a tiny nearly invisible scar “everything I’ve given you”.

Fu backs up with a whimper “no…no it can’t be, he-he destroyed you…” Hawk moth raises a brow under his mask as the older man’s calm exterior falls apart. Masquerade stands tall ignoring the breakdown in front of her to address Hawk moth.

“I’m afraid I have lied to you Hawk moth, the guardian is not needed for this ritual” she swings her leg and slams Fu into one of the seats. “I have all the information I need from my time with his teacher, the same teacher I had the chance to corrupt thanks to one sweet little boy who just wanted to help his friend” she coos smiling innocently at the glare Fu sent her. 

“So you bring him here to gloat? Wasting my precious time” Hawk moth snaps pointing his cane at Masquerade.

She calmly touches the cane and moves it out of her face “we have wasted no time Hawk moth, in fact we are even closer to your goal then ever”. Her cloak parts to her sides revealing a body suit decorated like the stars, one hand gently takes Hawk moths and the other presses something in his hand. 

Hawk moth opens his hand to find Ladybug’s earrings; a smile makes its way onto his face.

“That makes half the things we need to make this happen” Hawk moth whispers, he places the earrings of creation on one side of the coffin. His hand drags over the stone and lingers over where the head would be “soon my mission will be complete” he mutters moving his hand behind his back. 

 

“Hurry up Plagg” Adrien orders anxiously looking back to the entrance to the subway, no one had taken any interest in him hiding in one of the nearby alleyways. Plagg finishes his cheese in record time and nods to the ring “uh, you okay? You ate that slice in one bite”.

“I can sense Tikki is in trouble, let’s go already” Plagg snaps and Adrien doesn’t argue with that. With a cry of “claws out” Chat Noir appears ready to fight. He’s about to run back into the subway when a fishing line snags around his arm, he doesn’t even make out a “huh?” before he’s yanked into a wall and dragged up to the roof. 

“Looks like a caught a cat fish” E chirps using his fishing rod to slam Chat beside him, he puts it in one hand and grins at the way Chat struggled in the line. 

Chat rolls and pulls sending E off balance and into his line of fire, he smacks E with his boots then rips free from the line using his claws. “looks like the cat fish caught you” he fires getting to his feet and pointing his baton at E. Chat steps on Nathaniel’s sketchbook and kicks it far from E’s reach, the book falls from the roof scattering its contents as it fell. 

E smirks despite the disadvantage and puts his hand against the wall, Chat’s ears drop as the peacock Nath had spray painted months ago rips it’s head off the wall and gives an almighty screech. He takes off in a sprint as the giant bird charges; the peacock snags the back of his suit and shakes him like a rag doll. E hops onto the birds back and holds on tight as it takes off into the sky. 

Mr. Raincomplix hums adding the final touches to his thirtieth ticket of the day; thankfully this was not all to the same person again. A harsh breeze makes him look up to find a giant peacock fly over his head and vanish into the still broken butterfly window on the Agreste house. The bird was much bigger then the window and from outside dust flies out as it heads down. But most importantly it sends a large chunk of concrete flying towards him and crushing the police scooter he was using for the day. 

The peacock throws Chat to the ground then gives a honk that echoed in the large basement. Chat rolls until he bumps against something hard and warm. He forces his eyes open to greet his gorilla bodyguard staring at him and the chains that tied him up. The gorilla gestures to the lock with his head then lets out a growl, “you want to help?” Chat says looking back to E jumping off the peacock ready to charge. The gorilla nods with a grunt; Chat smirks and uses his claw to pick the lock. 

Like a real gorilla the second he’s free he slaps the ground with his massive hands then tackles the peacock sending them both into piles of metal and dead plants. E steps on the edge of a pipe to send it into the air and he catches it like a pro. Chat aims his baton like he did in fencing but E doesn’t follow his idea, instead he aims low striking Chat’s ankle. Instinctively Chat’s hands go to it and E uses the opportunity to grab his hand and twist it the wrong way. Chat cries out and falls to the floor but E doesn’t let up, he continues to pound the cat with the pipe.

E jerks his head back to avoid the sword that came for his throat, he grins like a cheeky child at Hawk moth. “I thought Masquerade told you he was not to be harmed” Hawk moths voice boomed while Chat tries to steady his vision. The gorilla was to his right unconscious by the massive peacocks multiple pecks to the head and an older man in a dirty tropical shirt looked to them with empty eyes, his limbs tied so tightly his hands were white. 

“He can get carried away sometimes, don’t you my silly little snake?” Masquerade coos running a hand though E’s hair. Hawk moth relaxes his arm once E had backed off and turns his attention to Chat.

“You won’t get away with this” Chat spits head too dizzy to think of anything but the cliché, Hawk moth’s gaze softens and he bends to be at eye level with him.

“Adrien I know you think I am the bad guy, a villain with goals that could only be of pure malicious intent.” He pauses to put his hand on Chat’s shoulder, “my goal is anything but evil…Adrien please give me your ring”.

Chat hesitates hearing his name but forces a scowl “I will never do that” he hisses covering his ringed hand with his other hand. Hawk moth’s hand doesn’t let go or tighten, it was too gentle for a super villain. “The rest of the team will find me, we’ll stop you once and for all” he adds swallowing bile that gathered in his mouth. 

“Adrien with both the ladybug and the cat I can grant our biggest wish, I can bring Emilie back, your mother back to this world” 

Chat stops breathing wondering if he had passed out and was now dreaming, “bring her back?” he mumbles searching Hawk moth’s eyes to see if he was lying.

“Yes you can finally be a family again” Hawk moth’s relived chuckle makes it into his words, he grabs hold of his own miraculous “dark wings fall”. 

“Father…” Chat says at last, “you were the ones behind all the akuma attacks…you were the one hurting all those people-“

“I did it for you Adrien, to save your mother”

Chat felt tears fall down his mask “you hurt all those people, you manipulated all those people” his teeth grinded against each other and a growl slips past “you hurt my friends”. 

Gabe bit his lip as his son starts to shake with emotion “it doesn’t matter now Adrian, after this all will return to-“

“LIKE HELL IT WILL” Chat screams cutting him off “WHAT ABOUT ALL THE MENTAL SCARS YOU’VE MADE ON THE PEOPLE? WHAT ABOUT NATALIE AND NATH OVER THERE, WILL THE DEMON JUST LEAVE THEM AFTER YOU’RE DONE?” Chat’s voice cracks but Gabe doesn’t show any emotion.

“You’ll thank me later” he deadpans grabbing hold of Chat’s hand and prying it open. Chat’s hand is still damaged from E’s treatment and doesn’t hold against him long.

Chat looks at his father’s eyes desperate for something “it’s like I don’t even know you anymore…” he chokes out then screams in pain as his father gets access to the ring. 

“Then it makes this easier” Gabe replied coolly, the ring pops out and Plagg goes flying to the ground. The kwami arches his back and hisses at him, Gabe doesn’t spare him a glance as one of Masquerades snakes grabs him and wraps him in his scales.

Gabe hands the butterfly miraculous to Masquerade as he walks by her to the altar, she smirks and hands it to E who places the active miraculous in his mouth. Nooroo and the other kwami pale as he swallows it. Gabe slips the ring on and puts the earrings on, the earrings stuck on by magic since his ears weren’t pierced. Masquerade steps in front of the altar and reads the spell from the book, Gabe repeats what she says and both miraculous start to glow vibrantly.

Marionette gasps once her feet had touched solid ground again, she felt she had to do something but she had no idea where to go. She’s pulled out of her thoughts by Tikki groaning, “oh no…Marionette he’s activated the miraculous” Tikki cries then her form turns to dust and is dragged away. 

“TIKKI!” Marionette cries uselessly grabbing for her friend, she chases after the dust and gasps at the sight it was headed. The Agreste house was surrounded by police cars with part of it already destroyed; Marionette makes a fist then runs the other way. Ladybug might be without her miraculous, but she wasn’t defeated. Marionette runs into her room thankful her parents were in the backroom with the loud clothes dryer going. She tears under her bed and pulls out a box containing Alya’s birthday present, guess she’ll need another one. 

Marionette slips on the red black spotted hoodie and throws the hood on. Her hands reach into her dresser and pull out a souvenir from Clara Nightingale’s music video. She looks at her reflection in the mirror, without magic the mask didn’t stick perfectly to her face but it looked like it would hold. Not wanting to alert her parents downstairs she ties her sheets and some clothes together and uses them to climb down from the balcony. 

“Hold on Tikki, I’m coming”

Adrian shields his eyes as his father was engulfed in magic, his body too bright to make out any details. Gabe thrusts his hand out and a portal opens up in front of him, green purple and red colours swirl together then form a figure in their light. 

Emilie Agreste didn’t look a day older then the day she vanished, her beauty timeless. She opened her eyes and set them on Gabriel, a small smile made its way to her face and she reaches to him with her hand. Gabe’s eyes softened and he reached for it, he had done it after all these years.

Adrien got to his feet and charged towards them, whatever his father was seeing was not what he was seeing. At first glance it looked like his mom, but when he squinted her real details came to light. The women in front of Gabe wore white robes that spilled to the floor like a beautiful cloud. Her blonde curls flowed around her face hidden away with a mask, a mask with a pointed nose like the mouths on mosquitoes.

Adrien grabbed his father’s arm and forced them both to the ground, the women’s kind smile dropped and she let out a horrible screech. The portal starts to collapse on itself and creates a shock wave that sends both father and son a few meters back. The force of the impact makes Gabe lose both miraculous’s, the jewelry lands at E’s feet. Masquerade nods to him and flies off as a bunch of smoke, Gabe grabs Adrien roughly and shakes him.

“I was going to take her place Adrien” Gabe cries tears threatening to fall from his eyes “you would finally be happy-”.

“You really think that would make me happy?” Adrien cuts him off “I don’t want mom back if it means I have to lose you…even after everything you’ve done you’re my family”. He said family with as much strength as the grip he had on his father’s sleeves. Gabe opens his mouth to reply but nothing comes out so Adrien continues “there has to be another way to save her, there has to be”.

“There is” E chirps making both Agreste’s turn his way, he holds up both miraculous’s and puts them on the floor. Before any person or kwami could stop him he had stomped on them hard enough to break them into multiple pieces. 

“Oh this is not good” 

Adrien turns to Plagg’s voice and sees the kwami turning slightly transparent then vanishing all together. “PLAGG!” he cries reaching for the space the kwami once floated in, barely noticing Gabe dropping his hands to his lap. 

“You shook up the worlds enough” E continues walking past Duusu’s cage, Duusu reached for him then her face fell into her nubs. Nooroo reached in to pat her on the shoulder, unable to look at her in the eye. 

“You’ll maybe see her again, you’ll meet my family and his family too” E purred as the entire place began to shake.

Marionette gasps when she turns the corner, a new building was emerging from the Agreste mansion, a giant brown cylinder object slowly climbed to the sky. Inside the mansion cracks travel up the walls straight though the picture atop the stairs ripping it in two. Parts of the mansion fall to the ground as the cylinder reaches its full height, a little smaller than a sky scraper but not by much. Its top was pointed and the middle was a little thicker than the rest of it, Marionette couldn’t help but think it looked like a giant chrysalis. People pay no attention to her as she heads into the crowd that had formed in front of the house. A shadow falls over them and Marionette looks up to find not the shadow of the cylinder but the entire sky was covered in black scary clouds. They swirled around the top of the chrysalis and spread out to cover the entire city of Paris. Marionette adjusted her hood then charged though the crowd; people make sounds of confusion as she moves past. She pushes under the “do not cross” sign and charges towards the base of the chrysalis, she hears the police call for her to stop and promptly ignores them. 

Despite looking like it was made of metal the chrysalis felt paper-like which made it easy to grab hold of. It was another story making sure her feet didn’t slip; she didn’t dare look down as she climbed. 

Masquerade looks down at the crowd hidden away by the clouds swarming her. She opens her cloak to allow Volpina to exit and turns the fox to meet her face. “You did well in getting Ladybug’s miraculous” she purrs running a hand down Volpina’s face and playing with her hair. 

“Are you going to fulfill my wish now?” Volpina asks face lighting up like a child’s, Masquerade smirk grows ever wider. 

“Of course child, close your eyes”

Volpina eagerly does so but they shoot open when pain comes from her chest, Masquerade had her hand dug into her chest covered in the black gunk. Volpina can’t make a sound as she watches Masquerade practically fill her gut with the substance “When you die you will become everything you ever wanted”. The wound begins to burn making Volpina’s breaths come out sharp, in horror she watches Masquerade pluck her necklace off her neck. “And you will belong to me” a different voice comes out of Masquerade’s lips. She breaks the necklace in two releasing the akuma within, Volpina finally lets out a shriek as her costume falls and she plummets to the earth.

Lila has her eyes closed as the wind rushes by her face, but her fall is suddenly stopped by a hand grabbing hers. She gasps seeing her hooded savior, “you’re ladybug…but I took your miraculous, you’re powerless”. 

“I made a vow to protect this city” Ladybug states moving Lila to the chrysalis so her feet could stand. “Miraculous or not, I am going to protect this city and everyone in it” she lets go once Lila had a secure footing. “Stay here, the police will get you down” she orders pointing down to them getting a fire departments ladder into position.

“Ladybug” Lila starts after a moment of silence, she swallows hard “…go kick his butt” she blurts at last. Ladybug takes that as the best apology Lila can do and nods, her hood falls as she leans back to do her “bug out”. Lila stares at her in awe as the hero continues her climb, she couldn’t help but wonder if she knew that face from somewhere.

Masquerade rips the wings off the akuma and smiles at the negative energy that dripped out, she holds it up to the sky as lightning strikes around her. “You don’t have a choice Nathalie…but I should warn you how much this is going to hurt” she purrs. Several lighting strikes hit Masquerade making the demon laugh and the person inside scream.

Marionette presses her body against the chrysalis as a harsh wind whips around her, she looks up to see Masquerade for a second then she vanishes into thin air. Screams come from below as the sky literally starts to rip, what looked like space peeked through the tears in reality. 

Eyes suddenly appear in the tears then thousands upon thousands of dark creatures fly out with screeches like bats. A bunch of them gather on the Eiffel tower, a giant eye appears in the empty space in the middle. People scream and get out of the way as its leg’s pull out of the ground and the tower starts to walk in a random direction. More creatures simply land on the ground and begin to chase people; others form into each other making giant versions of them. 

E rides on the giant peacock and gets close to one of the tears “come on, come on” he whispers eyes darting everywhere for sign of them. His eyes widen in excitement as a golden orb burns though the black creatures, it pays him no attention in favor of slamming to the Earth and making a small crater. The ball rams into the nearest batch of creatures not caring that there was people by them that get thrown and likely injured. 

Marionette hurries to the top and finds an entrance into the chrysalis; she pries open the hatch and slides inside. Thankfully there is a ladder for her to use on the way down. 

Adrien smiles gently as the last rope break to allow Master Fu’s arms to breath. The guardian stares at the ground “I’m sorry Chat Noir; I wish we could have met under better circumstances”.

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about later…” Adrien says moving to the cage that housed Duusu, he ignored the slight shock it gave him and unlocked it easily. The kwami looked on the verge of a breakdown but held together in order to give Nooroo a long needed hug. The kwami practically collapsed into tears clinging onto Duusu like she was his life line. 

Master Fu picked up the pieces of the miraculous’s and handed the remains of the black cat to Adrien. Thunder sounds from outside and the lights go out leaving the place in darkness, Fu’s breath hitches when a small hand touches his arm. “It’s me Master Fu, Ladybug” Marionette says calmly making the older man relax “is Chat noir here?”

“I am” Adrien calls into the darkness; they both gasp and turn away when the emergency lights come on. It was only the butterfly leaving the room in a faint purple glow. “Our miraculous’s are broken, there’s nothing we can do” Adrien admits crossing his arms. 

Marionette looks to the altar and spies the spell book still on the page of ultimate power, “maybe there is”. She accepts her earrings from Fu and finds the gem hidden inside, cracked but still glowing red. “Chat close your eyes and find my hand” she orders reaching her hand out, she closes her eyes as well. After a moment of stumbling she feels his ungloved hand touch hers, she peeks her eye open to check the miraculous to find it was glowing more vibrantly. A green light was coming from his. 

“On the count of three put your miraculous into mine”

“What will that do?” 

Marionette paused trying to find the right words; it was like a force was guiding her. “Just trust me” she goes with at last. 

She can hear Chat huff in annoyance but his hand tightened on hers, he sucks in a breath “one…”

Marionette concentrates to feel the magic that flowed on her skin; her eyes remained closed so she was unable to see the same happening to Adrien. “Two…” she says holding up her miraculous. Fu stood in awe at the not only the colours, but the fact they were doing this in front of an altar. He could only hope one day he would see this one day at a much better time. 

“Three!” They slap their miraculous together and feel a powerful buzz come from the joined miraculous stones. Master Fu, Gabe and the kwami’s shield their eyes as the red and green lights blend into a brilliant yellow. 

“Tikki spots on”

“Plagg claws out” 

Marionette feels the warmth spread from her hand to across her body, she opens her eyes to see her red suit had been replaced by a purple one with golden symbols all over it. Her pigtails had gotten longer and large yellow ribbons blew in an invisible wind behind her. She felt her face to feel the glorious mask that was on it, more decorated like one would be at a ball. She looks to Chat to see his new costume; it was still black but had the same yellow symbols. His mask and ears were fancier in design with added gray fur and yellow pearls. 

“Ladybug…this is incredible” Chat breaths looking away from his golden claws to her. 

“Never in my 187 years have I seen something like this” Fu whispers.

Ladybug grabs Chat’s hand “now we have a world to save” Chat nods and they both blast out of the room.

The Chrysalis’s top explodes as the two super powered heroes’ emerge, E growls and flies towards them.

Chat had never been one for painting, but this certainly looked like something worthy of it. They flew towards the giant peacock that had spread its feathers in a beautiful display of green and blue. The now orange and black sky had all sorts of colour coming from the tears in it. E scowled at them and his miraculous glowed softly, a snake falls from his arm and morphs into a scythe which he holds behind him with the blade at his feet.

“I won’t let you close the portal” E screams at them with a hiss, the peacock gives a loud honk that shatters the windows down below. 

“Are you ready Chat?” Ladybug says looking back to him. 

“Always my lady”

“Then here’s the plan”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your comments, kudos, and just reading this story. I don’t think it would have ever gotten this far without you guys.


	24. The Prince and the Puppet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone else think at the end of season 2 they're just going to zoom in on the Eiffel tower to reveal Lila's been stuck there the entire time?

Carapace pushes the last of the books off and sluggishly gets to his feet, what a freaking day. First a dragon during science and now whatever had happened with Nathaniel back there. He walks over to a massive hole in the building “night already?” he mumbles only for screams to enter his ears. His eyes widen at the sight of the Eiffel Tower walking around with a massive eye on it, down below tiny demons take on the form of giant leeches and chase people every direction. Then there was the sky with demons flying out of portals, Carapace just stood there stunned for a second.

“Hey who started weirdmageddon without me?” he calls out jumping down into the chaos. 

“You’re alright girl, we’re out of the tunnels now” Rena says allowing Bee to use her as a crutch. The two girls make it to the top of the stairs and Bee falls to her knees. Poor girl was more claustrophobic then Chat was, when Rena had found her she was already on the verge of a panic attack. Flying into the ceiling over and over like a trapped bug, she was never going to admit to how tightly she had gripped onto Rena but Rena was fine to not bring it up. 

“Can’t believe Chat didn’t come back to help you out, what was so important that he couldn’t uh…” Rena trails off gawking at the sky. Bee follows her eyes and sees the massive peacock fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir…and they were freaking flying! 

Ladybug drops to avoid the next attack by the bird while Chat continued his fight with E; she hears a buzz by her ear and clicks the button on it. 

“Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” Carapace’s voice comes though the ear piece, Bee and Rena join in on the call with “I don’t know” sounds. 

Ladybug zips back to avoid the peacocks wings, she looks down and for a moment freezes at the height. She forces herself to take a breath and scan the grounds, there were demons everywhere. How was she supposed to guide the team to stop all of them, there were so many tiny…

Bingo shoots though her head “Girls round up as many of those little demons as you can and get them into Paon’s line of fire”. 

“Uh don’t think he’s here bugaboo” Chat cries then crashes into her, they scramble to upright themselves before they fell to the ground. E gives a battle cry followed quickly by his ride, he raises the scythe to the sky and hundreds of giant’s moths swarm around it. 

Rena’s ears perk at the sound of splashing, she turns to see a yellow light spin like a tornado collecting a bunch of little demons and burning them up in a light it omitted. Unfortunately not all of them burned and slithered away looking like leeches. The light vibrated in frustration and went to grab the ones that escaped. Rena’s heightened senses pick up a watery smell coming from the light as it passed her, her memory flashed back to Shadow mask. 

“I got an idea, get them into the Seine” Rena says and grabs Bee’s arm; they share a nod and take off in separate directions. Bee uses her scepter to wave the creatures like a sheepherder, Rena doing the same with her flute. 

Ladybug swings her yo-yo to form a shield that destroys the moths that dive bombs them, “where is Paon? We need all hands on deck” she cries flinching at the horrible sounds the moths made as they were torn apart. 

“He’s uh-“Chat pauses to glance over at E, as if on cue he brings a hand to his head in pain. “He had to leave to fight someone but he’s going to win” he shouts the last part like a taunt to E. E hisses and swerves the peacocks towards them. Chat moves up to avoid the peacock and connect his staff with the scythe, they both growl as it turns into a pushing match. 

“I know you’re in there Nath” Chat cries grunting as E forces him onto the peacocks back “not to rush you but we kinda need Paon right now” he adds in a hushed whisper. 

 

Nath blinked his eyes open to be greeted by his bedroom, he closed it again only to bolt up when he remembered what had happened seconds earlier. Ladybug asking for Adrien, Masquerade appearing behind him then Ladybug pulled out a necklace and…

His head hurt, Nath threw his cover off and opened the door expecting the stairs on the other side. But the other side of the door was outside, the grass yellow and dead. Several trees still stubbornly clung to life, ponds were either dried up or muddy. Most hair rising was the purple smoke floating above the ground like a poisonous fog. Nathaniel steps out of the room and instantly feels a chill run up his spine, someone was watching him. The door to his room slams making him jump, he can only watch as the door vanishes from existence 

“We finally meet face to face” 

Nath turns to face the figure as it approached him; he wasn’t surprised by now that it had his face. Although this copy had a few details that didn’t match, his hair was much longer and tied in a loose ponytail. “Do you know who I am?” he asks dragging the ponytail to rest on his right shoulder. 

Nath mirrors the copies pose, calling on all the confidence he gains as Paon to cover the fear. “Should I care?” he says at last as coolly as he could manage.  
The copy smirks and leans on one hip “I’ll let you decide-“ 

Nath yelps as a needle like pain comes from his hands, his ankles and neck felt similar pricks. “-when Ladybug uses her cure to heal our body, I’ll take over as the main host”.  
Nathaniel’s eyes widen at the nearly invisible string coming out of his hand, the string suddenly yanks back forcing him to turn awkwardly. Before he can recover the ones at his feet pull out making him face plant on the ground. The ones on his neck and head pull to make him look up at the copy, smirking like a cat watching its prey.

“I bet your family and friends won’t even notice at first, but they will. They might even love the new you, more confident more demanding of respect, an improvement from the old version” the copy purrs stepping back so Nath could see the metal crawling over his body. The metal clanks as it reaches his head, swallowing his hair and encasing it in a feathered helmet. 

“A prince for a puppet”

The helmet completes itself with a loud clang, “did you really not know puppet? Or were you in denial?” Nath doesn’t say anything, his mouth felt dry. The Prince’s wings fold neatly into his arms, allowing him to grab Nath’s chin and force him to look up at him. The strings forced him to his knees with his arms strung tightly behind him; it looked like a mutilated bow. 

“Go screw yourself” Nath hisses through clenched teeth, “I’ve won against the corrupt before, you are no different”. 

The Prince cocks his head to the side “do you really think at any point you had control? Tell me puppet, do you remember your first time meeting E? How you gained all your memories back from the past year-” he pauses stepping around Nathaniel, a wolf circling its next kill. “But do you remember what happened after Le Paon shot you? The weeks you spent under Hawk moths roof” the Prince takes out something from his back pocket. Unlike the other trapped memories this one just glowed purple. 

“Why don’t I show you?” 

Nath struggles against the strings as the Prince holds the orb in front of his face, he closes his eyes but turns out to be a useless. Strings attached to his eyelids forced them open, the orb lights up and surrounds his vision.

Nath instantly recognizes the place as the dome that housed the lost ones months earlier. The walls already had many chrysalises like some kind of horror movie. To his surprise some weren’t completely sealed. The heads of some of his classmates poked out of the buggy prisons, their eyes wide and frightened. 

His attention is drawn to two figures on the ground, his past self and Hawk moth. Past Nath sat on the floor with his body so limp he looked lifeless. Hawk moth bends down and whispers in past Nath’s ear, “stand puppet” his command booms clearly in current Nathaniel’s ear. Nath winces but still watches past Nath stand up. No life at all in his eyes.

“Now walk puppet” past Nath obeys and starts walking forward, his movements sluggish like he was sleepwalking. He can hear Rose clearly screaming for him to stop, Mylene begging him to wake up. Nath doesn’t understand their desperation until he sees what his past self was walking towards. A large rattlesnake started to shake its tail in warning as past Nath got closer.

“SNAP OUT OF IT” Ivan booms’ causing several chrysalises’ to shake like leaves, most importantly it stops past Nath in his tracks.

The life returned to his eyes and he blinked groggily. He shook his head and looked up at his classmates “guys? What’s going….on…” 

“NO NATH” Rose screams but is helpless to stop the butterfly from landing on her friends left ear. Hawk moth watches with glee and speaks though the butterfly.

“Quiet my puppet. Obey your master”

Nath feels his eyes grow heavy, effected by the words even when it was just a memory; he was a puppet, he had to obey his…

Nath jerks his head up and shakes it fiercely to avoid falling under the spell. Past Nath isn’t so lucky, his head falls and his eyes drain of control. The butterfly remained on his ear continuing to whisper to block out his classmates pleas. 

The snake gave its final warning that goes unheard and launches itself at past Nath. Its fangs sink into his leg forcing him to the ground, Rose and Mylene scream as it attacks over and over.

Le Paon strolls out of the darkness and finally calls the snake off, leaving Nathaniel with more holes in his body then a pin cushion. “Happy nightmares children” she purrs in delight as the chrysalis’s cover the panicked students. 

The memory ends turning back into an orb, the Prince smirks spinning the orb on his finger like a basketball. “You know you could have saved so many people pain if you had just left that brooch in the snow” he taunts leaning down to be face to face with Nathaniel. “I mean the corrupt would never have come to be had you not tried to steal back Duusu, no wonder there’s a wax statue of Le Paon but none of you”

Nathaniel doesn’t give any response to the prince but his hands curl into fists. “What’s wrong Nathaniel?” The Prince asks in a mocking voice “are you upset that it’s your fault that all those kids got hurt?” 

The Prince watches as a black tar like substance slithers its way under Nath. It lapped at his legs feeding on his emotions. “Your team doesn’t need such a worthless excuse of a hero, in fact they can take down akuma’s without you no problem” the Prince twists the knife. 

“But don’t worry” The Prince purrs standing up and turning his back to Nathaniel. “Your life will be mine and you will be nothing but an old memory” he gloats spinning the orb then throwing it off into the distance. 

The tar seems to purr when Nathaniel’s eyes slam shut and tears burn as he tries to hold them back. His head felt like it was burning; the tears on his face were cold as result. He could hear the prince laugh somewhere nearby, his breaths come out sharply. Mocking him, laughing at him, thinking he would take over his life. Anger burns in his gut, setting the tar aflame. His eyes cloud over with an inky black and he shouts what comes to mind before reason can return.

“Dark feathers flourish”

The Prince stops laughing to dodge a storm of black feathers come out of nowhere and surround Nath; the feathers touch his skin and cover it. More feathers slice the strings from his head and hands allowing him to perform his transformation sequence. It wasn’t energetic as it normally was; his movements were like the eye of a storm. He brought his hands up and dragged them though his hair, covering his head with the black substance which hardened into a helmet. And since darkness was all about that aesthetic his plum irises were highlighted by what looked like winged eyeliner. His fans came out of his wrists with a gooey sound; the prince covers his face as the storm rips the rest of the strings. His wings pop into place in time to block the tar peacock before he slashed his head off.

“Say goodnight Prince” 

 

Duusu gasps and holds her stomach, “they’re hurting him” she cries “they’re hurting Nathaniel”. 

“What more could they possibly do to him” Gabe spits coldly “that demon already is using his body to do whatever he wishes”

“You sound like a child whose toy has been taken away” Master Fu hums wiping some dust off the spell book. Gabriel’s stare is left ignored as Fu holds his hand out for Duusu to sit, “Duusu he is still wearing your miraculous correct?”

“Yes” Duusu confirms wondering where the guardian was going with this.

“Then perhaps-“Fu opens up the book to a page with a peacock hero on it, they had their hands on their head with two ancient clocks beside them “-we activate oracle sight and you can get in”.

Duusu’s gasps “that’s genius, do it right now” she orders jumping onto the book and pointing to the ancient spell. Fu nods and the two proceed to head towards the exit; before they leave Nooroo stops them.

“Let me help, he swallowed my miraculous. Maybe I can get in too” he says putting his nubs together in a please motion. 

“Are you going to just leave me here alone?” Gabriel hisses as the three move to pass him, Nooroo cowers and Duusu moves in front of him glaring Gabe down. “Nooroo you are to remain here with me” he orders, Nooroo swallows tears of frustration.

“You don’t have the miraculous anymore, you have no say” Duusu fires zipping over to poke Gabe in the area his miraculous would have sat. The designer stumbles back not expecting the little creature to pack such a punch.

“Besides as guardian I have the power to revoke a miraculous from a poor user once I know their identity” Fu adds tapping on the book a few times. “You Gabriel Agreste are no longer the wielder of the butterfly miraculous”.

Gabe’s expression doesn’t change but his face noticeably turns a bright red “fine then, go” he orders turning his back. Nooroo looks to Fu confused but Duusu brings a nub to her mouth to keep him from saying anything.

Fu bends down and hands Gabe a broom, enjoying the confused cracks in the designers face. 

“You’re going to need that to clean up the mess you’ve made”

As they head to the surface Nooroo can’t stand it any longer “Fu why did you-“

“Do not worry Nooroo I am wearing fire proof pants today” Fu cuts him off and pushes some metal out of the way to get to the surface. 

 

Two boys in their late teens scream as a bunch of human sized ink blob demons chase them down an ally. Both have a striking resemblance to Nino; one even has a baseball hat. A shield swings towards them and bounces off the walls, going in between them and taking out the demons. They come up from their crouch in time to see the shield bounce back into Carapace’s hands, “thanks bro” one of them calls racing past him. Carapace lets out a big breath as soon as they leave, that felt way too close for comfort.

A large winged demon flies down and spots Rena cornering a bunch of tiny demons against the Seine. They squeal trying not to hit the water, Rena seems to catch on to their distress and swings her flute to get them to back up. The large demon charges down readying its claws to tear her apart, it roars but Rena acts like she didn’t hear it.

Bee charges down from her hiding spot and grabs it in a headlock; its ugly head hits the ground and shatters to pieces. Rena golf style knocks the last little demon into the water; it makes a funny popping sound then vanishes into a puff of smoke. “That’s the last of them” Bee cheers then loudly groans at the demon gunk left in her hair. 

“Not quite, you girls mind helping me out here” Carapace cries shooting his grappling hook at the possessed Eiffel tower, it ignores the little hero content about walking towards where the people were trying to evacuate. Carapace screams as he’s yanked into the air and dragged along.

Rena and Bee take to the skies and land in front of the tower, behind the crowd “in one, two-“ Rena calls as they take a few steps back.

“THREE” 

They launch into the air, grab each other’s arms and do a loop in the air. Bee’s wings light up blinding the tower, a flute is heard and the two are engulfed in flame.

“Fox fire” Rena cries and the ball smacks into the towers eye, the fire illusion fades away revealing it was just Bee giving it a hard left hook. The tower loses its balance and topples to the ground; Carapace somehow manages to swing on top of it before it lands. 

The girls land and bask in the cheers from the crowd behind them; Bee peeks behind her and spots both her Daddy and Sabrina cheering them on. She turns to Rena with a less then amused look “I thought we agreed to call that Bee blast”.

Rena puts her hands on her hips “no we agreed on fox fire, I mean we pretend to turn into a fire ball”. 

Bee copies her pose making a tsk sound, “but I land the punch it should be named after me”. 

Carapace runs up to the girls with a wave, “Carapace what would you call that move, fox fire or bee blast?” Rena asks giving him a look that said to choose carefully, Bee isn’t much better.

“Uh no, don’t drag me into this…” his hands go up in a mock surrender, the girls continue to stare making him feel the need to hide behind his shield. “Look why don’t we- a loud bell cuts him off.

The three turn to it in confusion “church bells?” Rena scratches her head. 

Without any sort of rhythm the bells of Notre Dame start banging, Paris becomes surrounded by the sound of bells. Carapace cries out and rips his earphones out; the sound of loud static comes out of them as he tosses them to the ground. In a bakery nearby Sabine and Tom hold each other’s hand cowering in the corner of their kitchen. The entrance bell rings like crazy despite the door being shut tight. 

“Argh now what” Bee whines.

 

“Why do you fight me Chat Noir I only want to save my family, you of all people should understand” E hisses as their weapons clang together. Chat bites his lip and uses the baton defensively to block the multiple swings thrown his way.

“Don’t think we have enough hot dogs for that family BBQ, guess they’ll have to go home” Chat fires moving his legs into a bunch of silly poses since his feet just levitated. He swings and E’s too slow to block it, Chat flinches when he looks back at him. How long had those cracks in his skin been there? All along his face and exposed skin on his arms were deep gashes with purple light coming from within. E watches one gash crawl up his arm and takes several deep breaths.

“I’m…not letting you close the portals” he spits out sounding like he might be choking on liquid, he takes a step towards Chat only for a loud crack to come from his leg. Chat covers his mouth at the sight of Nath’s foot bent at a bad angle, definitely broken. E looks at Chat with his slit eyes glowing, the skin around Nathaniel’s face started to darken like it was rotting, forming a mask of sorts. 

Bells make both boys stop fighting for a moment; E rests his scythe on his shoulders and looks back to Chat “they’rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre commming” breaths out of E with a buzzing sound coming from his throat. He holds the scythe out in front of him and closes his eyes; the weapon hums and forms a second blade on its other end. He cracks his jaw to give a horrible battle cry, “they are all that matter” he spins the blades forcing Chat to block. 

 

Prince Ali looks up from his studies at the sound of screams coming from outside, concerned he leaves his desk and peers out the window. Black clouds swarm the sky blocking out the sun, before he could react parts of it split open and spit out hundreds of ink like monsters. He looks behind him at the desk then back at outside, a small creature flies up from the papers and floats beside him. “At least the presence of demons cools the place down” it hums.

“Well let’s give them a warm welcome” Ali says taking his pocket watch and wrapping it around his wrist “Viccra stripes on”. 

People in London gawk in confusion at their Big Ben dinging over and over, at first they think it’s a glitch but then other bells start going off like mad. A women looks to her phone that starts ringing and tries to answer it, but it just continues to ring. 

Another facility filled with people working on computers flinched when loud alarm bells go off around them. “What’s going on here?” a man dressed in a military uniform barked in an American accent. 

“There’s a huge wave of energy, it’s-“another American is cut off by several screen cracking and breaking. 

“Ooooooooohh shhhhhhhellfish” Carapace squeaks as a huge serpent charges out of the portal, millions of inky demons follow it like rain. The serpent dwarfed the dragon from earlier, its teeth easily the size of phone booths. 

“And I’m down to one illusion, how are we supposed to fight all of them?” Rena adds tightening her grip on her flute. 

Bee looks back at the crowd; her daddy and Sabrina were cowering in fear. She felt a familiar buzz from her chest and took a step forward. “Maybe we don’t have to…”

-Flashback-

“What the heck happened to me Pollen? I feel like a massage chair” Chloe whined after dropping her costume in the schools bathroom. She had just come back from a fight with an akuma who’s goal was to give everyone terrible hair or something goofy like that. The crazy part was when Sabrina had nearly gotten run over by a car with its driver blinded by giant dreadlocks. Bee felt the tinge in her arms and shot over to her, lifting the car with ease allowing her friend to escape. 

“The ginger is your friend right” Pollen started finishing her cereal treats before continuing. “That means she’s part of your hive, that’s the most important thing for a bee. The bigger the hive, the stronger the bee”.

-Flashback end-

Pollen's words echoed in her mind, a big hive made a strong bee. She clenched her fists thinking of Sabrina back there, her best friend, her Chat Noir. Her Daddy was there, Jean must be there as well. 

The serpent roared and plunged towards them. Bee closed her eyes and concentrated, her hive had grown since becoming Queen Bee. Ladybug was definitely part of it; Rena, Paon, Carapace, and Chat were her team. She thought of her classmates, her teachers, they were part of her hive too. 

Bee’s fists and wings started to glow; she opened her eyes and charged the serpent. All of Paris was her hive and she was going to defend it!

“BUZZ, BUZZ MOTHER HUGGER” 

Bee caught the serpent by the snout and dug her heels into the ground. The massive creature bends forward from the momentum, the concrete gives way as they slide towards the crowd. Bee gives a war cry and slams the serpent away from the people onto the ground. 

When the dust settles the serpent lies unmoving and Bee stands on its head. “This is your city Parisians, are you going to let these monsters take it away?” she cries turning all eyes to her. “We can destroy every last one of them, but we need your help. Fight for your home, chase them into downtown“.

The people are stunned for a moment, their eyes wide as saucers. “I like the way this girl thinks” a foreign accent speaks breaking the silence. Jagged Stone smirks and takes his guitar out of its case “I like this city and I’ll be darned if I let it get swallowed by those freaks”.

Rena snaps out of her confusion and jumps on top of the serpent next to Bee “Ladybug continued to fight even without her powers, if she can do it so can you”.  
Bee’s scepter swings out with a flash of light, she wields it above her head “FIGHT BACK”. The crowd threw their fists into the air with a cheer, “let’s kick some butt” she adds taking off into the sky. 

Jagged Stone strums his guitar “I think I know just the song for this” he says with a smile kicking off into an epic guitar solo. 

Kim smacks a baseball bat on his free hand walking in front of a crowd approaching a large group of tiny demons. They roar in challenge and he gives a war cry of his own, they charge the monsters smacking some to dust. The rest fall back in terror and are herded by the Parisians down to where the miraculous hero’s waited. 

Max pours a liquid and a powder into a litre pop bottle; quickly he closes the lid and passes it to Mylene. “Ten seconds” he calls as Mylene shakes it and tosses it to Ivan, Ivan throws it football style out the window. The bottle flies out of the random office they were in and clatters into a nicely sized gutter. It falls out then lands at the feet of a larger demon. It looks at it confused then screeches as it explodes and blinds it. Two other demons yelped and ran away from other bottles that fell from the heavens.

Caline Bustier shoos some demons away from some younger students, expertly using the broom like Chat would his baton. With a hair pin in her mouth she places her hair in the tight bun it normally was in during school hours. No way in heck was she going to be caught with dead anime mom hair during this. Suddenly there’s a loud thud behind her, she turns to find herself face to face with a snake the size of an elephant. The students below her scream and run but she remained frozen, transfixed by her reflection in the snakes eyes. The snake hisses and lunges for her, fangs large enough to rip her in two.

“GET DOWN” A loud man’s voice commands, before Caline could react a strong hand grabs her waist and pulls her to the ground. Matvey pulled a gun out of his boot and fired four times at the monster, it shrieked and its form crumbled into dust. “Come on, go, go” Matvey calls quickly getting Caline to her feet and ushering her towards the safest area. Maybe it was just the blood pumping in her ears but Caline could have sworn his accent disappeared. 

Even Mr. Damocles I mean the Owl has a go at herding the demons down below, he shoots his hook which deflects off the wall and somehow manages to scoop his own leg out landing him trapped in a tree. But he managed to last a whole ten seconds which had to be a new record. 

Lila sighs and holds her shock blanket close to her sides; she doesn’t pay any attention to the bells outside. They weren’t very loud from inside the ambulance, although now that she thought about it the paramedics should have come checked on her by now. A loud screeching brings her out of her thoughts; she pulls out her phone to find it was the source. It was playing her ringtone at the highest pitch it could go and still be heard by human ears. Irritated she opens the ambulance door while trying to turn it off, her hands freeze in place at the monsters outside. They turn and stalk towards her, their forms turning into large panther like creatures. 

Lila ducks covering her head when they pounce, “huh” escapes her lips at the yelps the creatures made. She looks up to discover an orange light had tackled them turning them into smoke, the light seems to stare back at her then launched off to attack other creatures. 

Blue, red and an indigo light burst out of the portal, circling the air then launching down into the city. The blue light takes to the water creating massive waves as it flew. The light passes by a house boat catching the eye of a blue haired boy. He squints trying to look closer, was there something in the light? His attention is forced away when his sister nearly falls overboard and he quickly moves to grab her. The light turns when it reaches a bunch of large demons and the waves turn to ice to crush them. 

Rose runs to her home dodging the tiny demons that lunged for her feet, she grabs a broom and smacks them aside. She’s about to open her door when a sound stops her hand, it sounded like a horse’s desperate cry. She turns a corner and finds a red light struggling to fend off demons that took on the form of small dogs. She got closer to see the light was more than a horse, it was a unicorn. The creature smacked away the last demon but continued to shriek in fear; Rose inched closer and held her hand out.

“Hey-“she says gently “-it’s alright, they’re gone now” the red unicorn stops thrashing and stares at her. Rose reached and her hand met where it’s snout was, the unicorn snorted gently. A demon takes the opportunity to bite the unicorn’s flank, it whinny’s and throws its front hooves into the air. Rose blocks the hooves with her broom and falls to her bottom. The unicorn changes back into a ball of light; it flees destroying the demon in its haste. 

Wayhem cries out as he falls away from the crowd and onto his butt, he sits up and starts to laugh. What a freaking day, if he had known he’d be chasing demons into downtown he would not have worn his good pants. Darn thing was covered in muck, he’s about to stand up to rejoin the chaos when a green light shoots out of the portal and lands in an ant hill between his legs. Before he can say something dumb two ants the size of ponies rips out of the Earth. One ends up carrying him like a horse. Wayhem lets out a “whoa” as they charge towards the demons, he looks back to see the ants were carrying some kind of green light behind them. Instead of freaking out he holds up his pointed stick he had been using to fight with and points it like a lance “FOR FRODO” he cries.

Rena, Carapace and Bee acted like a well-oiled butt kicking machine, Rena knocked away several demons and Bee drilled others into the ground. Carapace held up his shield for Rena to jump off and back flip over one smacking it with her flute on the way down. Bee catches her before she lands while Carapace connects the shield to his grappling hook and hammer throws it knocking out demons around them. Rena’s ears twitch hearing a pigeon whistle; she looks over to Mr. Ramier waving to her. She gives him a thumb up and plays her final illusion, various items like boulders blocking the streets except for one to fool them into begin trapped. 

Carapace accepts Rena’s assistance to the roof of a building where he adjusts his googles; they zoom in on the demons being chased into the trap. “Alright Bee you got fifteen seconds to grab the water tower and put it into position” he says into his ear piece. Once the demons were all inside he runs over to a rope and slices though it with the shield. 

The rope releases the nets holding piles of cars and rocks which tumble down to the earth sealing the last exit. 

“See you later Shelly” Rena calls slapping him on the back then hopping down to find a place to lose the costume, Carapace smiles fondly as she leaves. Then he clears his throat and focuses back on the plan. 

Bee flies over to the nearest water tower and heaves it into her arms, awkwardly moving it over to position. “Alright guys time to hit the showers” she calls then uses her heel to slice the steel open. The water pours out causing shrieks of pain from the monsters down below, some hurry to escape by taking to the air. 

Carapace readies his hook to snag one in his direction but the yellow light beats him to it, grabbing the winged demon and smashing it to the ground.

“Uh Bee are these things friendly?” Carapace asks watching an orange one join in on the slaughter; he flinched at the sound the demons made. 

“I think so?” Bee answered scratching her head, only for the indigo orb to smack into her backside making her face plant. “NOT FRIENDLY BIG DUMB-BUTTS” she yelled angrily, Carapace tried not to laugh he really tried. 

“Alright let’s finish this” Carapace says regaining his composure, he jumps off the building and shoots the hook up to catch him before he splatted on the ground. He swings the shield in a circle to build up static and fires it down, “shell shock” fires out followed by waves of electricity. Any demon not finished by the water yowled turning into frying to black bits. 

Sparks fly from the boy’s weapons atop the peacock, E roars again spinning the scythe’s so quickly the blades glow white and blur into a circle. Chat manages to jam his baton between them and turns it to the floor, swinging his body to smack E with a well-placed kick. E flies off the peacock letting out a scream as he falls; the peacock turns away from its battle with Ladybug giving her an opportunity to get her yo-yo around its neck. Chat grabs E and crashes into the side of a building, his golden claws creating a lot of damage to the stone but he manages to stop before they hit the ground. 

Ladybug throws the peacock into the roof, her ribbons glow and wrap around its body like ghostly hands. The peacock gives one weaker cry before bleeding out into paint, Ladybug breathe a sigh of relief. She closes her eyes for a moment missing the blue and purple lights charging towards E and Chat. 

“Chat go and close the portals, we will handle the boy” 

Chat turns his attention to Master Fu who gave a wave with his free hand, Chat drops to the ground keeping a firm grip on E. E looks at him with half closed eyes with his body limp in Chat’s claws, he doesn’t object when Chat picks him up and carries him over to Fu. Nathaniel’s body felt so cold, his dry cracked lips made no sound when Chat places him on the ground. A plea for Fu to help him goes unsaid but was heard regardless. Chat nods and launches into the sky towards the largest portal, Fu opens the book and begins his chant. Once he had said it enough for the spell to activate Duusu grabs Nooroo’s nub and charges headfirst into her miraculous. 

“Chat, try using your cataclysm on that large one” Ladybug ordered once he was within earshot. Chat nods and summons the power to his claw, shooting off superman style towards the portal.

Fu was moving a flat rock under Nathaniel’s head to elevate his neck when E suddenly grabbed his arm and forced him back. “No, no, no” he chants and his body lights up with a purple and black fire. Fu can only watch as the possessed boy runs on all fours and climbs up the wall. Using the demons power to follow its programming, keep the portal open at all costs. With an inhuman jump he tackled Chat Noir and forced the cataclysmed hand to touch his chest. 

Chat Noir has his mouth open in shock, unable to tear his eyes away from the blackness started to cover Nath. His body started to fall apart into black ashy flakes and the purple light imploded sending the flakes all across the streets. The silence that followed was deafening. 

Down below the yellow light stops in its tracks having heard a noise it never wanted to hear. Its form spreads into that of a lioness and gives a roar, not one of territory and aggression but of mourning and loss. The other lights ended the silence with cries of their own, some so high pitched people and demons alike had to cover their ears. 

Ladybug can’t find her voice, she wasn’t sure if she should cry or try to reassure Chat. He couldn’t use his power now; she looked down at her hands. Should she use her lucky charm? Would she have enough power to revive Nath and close the portals?

Her ear phone buzzes with a call, numbly she answers it to hear Fu down below “he’s not completely gone, the kwami inside would have appeared if he had. Ladybug, close those portals then activate your miraculous cure. It should repair his body so long as the soul remains”.

Chat Noir chokes bringing Ladybug out of her trance, relief flooded her but she had to act fast. “You heard the man kitty, let’s get to work”.  
She throws her yo-yo up “Lucky charm” Ladybug catches and holds up the spotted tool in confusion. It looked like a sewing needle but it was long enough she could hold it with both hands easily. Luckily like normal it doesn’t take long for her to figure out what to do with it. She ties the needle around her yo-yo’s glowing string. She flew up trying not to think about the height, hopefully when the costume wore out she wasn’t too high. 

 

The prince laughs and dodges the fans yet again; he jumps away as Nath destroys a tree that was in his way. The prince jumps in front of another tree then dodges making Nath destroy it. Images flashed in front of Nathaniel’s face, his father leaving the court house, seeing Le Paon’s statue in the wax museum, and falling from Hawk moth’s lair having Duusu torn from his arms. He hated it. He hated the feelings that surged from the memories, his fans slashed though them as soon as they appeared. The tar was all he needed; they gave him the power to destroy. He catches the Prince to trade a few blows before the Prince skips off laughing with glee. Nath hated him the most.

An image of Hawk moth appeared in front of Nathanial “you belong to me” the villain purred before his image was ripped apart by the tar. “I control you” Hawk moths voice hisses from elsewhere and Nath swings wildly, he had to destroy it. The tar blasts around him burning the grass into nothing but a black void. 

Nath catches the Prince’s eye “you know who I’m going after first once I own your life?” he questions dodging the darkness the tar peacock shot at him. “I’m going after her royal highness; she and I have a fight to finish” the Prince smiles cruelly using his wings to block Nathaniel’s next attack. 

Nath roars angrily and slashes at the Prince, he had to kill him. The tar seemed to pulse against his skin in agreement; the Prince jumps away and stands ready for him to lunge. Nath doesn’t disappoint and readies another attack. that is until a light forms in between the two. 

Nath cocks his head in confusion at the scene; a swan and a peacock were locked in a battle. The swan stepped into a lake and the peacock followed without hesitation. But the peacock couldn’t swim as well as the swan; in fact as it sinks further the water starts to darken. 

The Black Prince growls realizing what was happening and creates a powerful wind with his wings to destroy the vision. When the light fades the Prince gasps and freezes in place. 

A giant black dragonfly had landed on Nathaniel’s nose, its wings glowing softly. Nath stared in confusion at the insect, a wave of calm slithered though him drowning out the voices from the tar. “Daddy?” a child’s voice reaches his ears, Nath gasps looking though the dragonflies wings to see what the Prince stood behind. 

“Come on Daddy we’re almost at the top” a five year old Nathanial cried pointing to the top of the hill, the image moved to his perspective of Ralph walking up to him with a kind but forced smile on his face. They were on the mountains in the black forest; Nathaniel pointed to something “look there’s mommy and some old lady”. 

Nath felt tears prick at his eye, this was the day he met Oma. His fans hung loosely at his sides, he was about to destroy it in a fit of rage. The memory faded and he looked down at his hands, what else had he destroyed? 

The dragonfly flutters to make him look up at it again; there was a ball of light coming towards him. He could hear Duusu crying his name. 

“Dark feathers wither…” he says falling to his knees. The tar melts away to reveal Nathaniel’s usual clothing underneath taking all his energy with it. When Duusu smacks into his chest he nearly topples over, the Prince growls and stalks towards them.

“Duusu I’m so sorry” Nathaniel mutters in between gasps of breath, the kwami wipes her tears away and offers him a small smile.

“You’re back now, that’s all that matters” she sniffs flying up to bump her head against his.

“Well I was going to let you do all the work but fine-“the Prince yells to get their attention “-I’ll just finish you off now” steel feathers shoot towards them. Nathaniel doesn’t have the energy or time to run and covers Duusu in his arms.

“Not if I have anything to say about it” a new voice joins the scene, Nathaniel looks up to see a women spinning some kind of weapon slicing the feathers to pieces. 

“Nathalie?” Nath managed to say.

“Not quite” Nooroo replied. 

The new form wore a dark purple skin tight suit, a silk cape went down her back and split into two round ends like a butterflies wings. Her hair fell loosely down her back with a lavender stripe where her miraculous sat on her head. Her mask was just her glasses with butterfly wings on the frames, highlighting eyes that were swimming with emotion. She holds her hand out “I can’t fight this evil without her dance partner”.

Duusu smiles and closes her eyes, her body lights up and forms into Emilie Agreste, Nathaniel gasps as he was engulfed in the woman’s arms for a tight hug. Duusu pulls back and uses her hand to move a strand of hair away from his face “get somewhere safe peachick” she orders softly. She doesn’t move until Nath nods and she takes Nooroo’s hand. 

“It’s been so long since they’ve danced” Nooroo says as they walk towards the Prince, he readies his wings and they ready their cane and fans. 

“It has, but I remember the steps like it was yesterday” Duusu replies and spins Nooroo into her arms. The prince is not amused and charges them. The two separate making him run between, the peacocks swings high while the butterfly swings low. Duusu looks up at the sound of falling dirt nearby and gasps at the ashes started to destroy the land into a white nothingness. “Cataclysm” she cried ducking to avoid the Prince’s wings “Nooroo we must hurry”.

Nath’s feet pound the dead ground as he races away from the battle. Where exactly was he supposed to go? He slows to a walk listening for any sound that could be a danger. A light flies by the corner of his eyes; he looks to it to find the large dragonfly circling a pond of black goo. It flies up then dives down into it, Nath runs up to it to watch its light fade as it sunk deeper into the black. He’s confused for a moment, but then spots something else hidden deep within the goo. 

The dragonfly helped him before, was it asking for his help in return? Nath decides it was and takes a few steps back then runs up to the pond. His dive wasn’t Olympic worthy but it was alright for his first try. The goo was like swimming though jello, he had to swim hard just to move slightly. He keeps his eyes on the thing down at the bottom, so concentrated on getting to it he didn’t realize the liquid ended until he fell out of it. He landed with a rather ungraceful belly flop, with a groan he rolls to his knees and his eyes fall on the creature in front of him. 

It looked like a kwami, a small body with a large head covered in dull lavender scales. It had little nubs like most of the kwami he had encountered but instead of feet it had a snake’s tail. Nath picked up the small creature which showed no sign of life. Nath runs his hand over the kwami’s head stopping at a lump which was hard and cold. It was much colder than the rest of the kwami’s body. He picks at it and the lump peels off and glows a hot pink colour, he rolled the diamond like prism in his hand. Was it a memory? He squeezes the gem allowing it to shatter in his hands; the light held inside encases the room.

A person dressed in dark purple robes stood out like an animation error on the cold snowy mountains in the Himalayas. He covered his face with his hands and limped across the snow, walking right past where Nath sat holding the kwami. Nath watched as he took another step and cried out falling to his knees, a purple light exploded from him taking away the costume. 

It was a boy; he couldn’t have been older than thirteen. The kwami flew down to his face pleading for him to transform again, tears falling from his gray slit eyes. The boy looked at the kwami with fearful black eyes and spoke something in Japanese. Somehow Nath can understand what he said.

“I don’t care about honour in death, I don’t want to die” 

“Our families not dead, we can save them please get up” the kwami said in his language, but the boy can’t hold on. His little body was too cold, lost too much blood. The kwami breaks down grabbing the boy’s hand and trying to move him. He’s so consumed with the boy he doesn’t notice the black smoke stalking towards them. He hears it and turns seconds before it swallows him and the boy. When the smoke faded the kwami is gone, the boy’s body begins to move and gets to his feet. He opened his eyes to reveal they were a dark purple, the boy glows softly and his costume covers him again.

“I…remember that” a small voice comes from Nathaniel’s arms, the kwami now awake looks at him with fresh tears in his eyes. “I wanted him to come back so bad, I didn’t realize what I’d done” he chokes out grabbing his tail with his nubby little arms. Trying to curl into a ball and disappear. “Kwami and humans are partners in life, but they should never join like we did” the room becomes filled with colour once more.

Nathaniel watched the boy limp back into town, he seemed totally fine at first. But then time started to move at a rapid pace, never once did he drop the costume. The boy’s body was starting to decay, Nath could tell from the smell starting to come from him. The kwami once overjoyed to be with his chosen again started to deteriorate trapped in the dead boys mind. It was a broken law of nature, the kwami piloting the body rather than the miraculous. The kwami was unable to realize what was happening tricked by his emotions and the demons influence. He was just a tool. A tool for the demon to use to be more powerful, to distract the dragon and let the other ones sneak past.

The memory fades away leaving them back at the mercy of the dark goo. Nath holds the kwami close when the liquid above jiggles and reaches for them, it surrounded them eager to consume. Nath looks down and finds he was standing in a puddle; his reflection had a blue aura coming off it like tiny flames. 

“I’m so sorry” the kwami cries as the black turns into tentacles and go to grab them. Instead of their familiar cold warmth surrounds him. The kwami opens his eyes to stare at the boy who held him, his eyes were closed and blue markings were visible on his skin. The kwami is in awe staring down to the water below them; it looked like the moon was visible on it. He looked back up at the boy with a small smile on his face 

“Ennzo-“the kwami whispered as the markings reached Nathaniel’s face “my name is Ennzo”. The water swirls around them in a bubble and expends against the darkness, pushing it back until it disappeared completely. 

Nathaniel gasped as the strange power left him, he looks up at the now blinding white room and sees a giant bird flying towards him. His vision fades to black as the peacock encases him in its wings. 

“Chat, help me out here” his lady calls him over, Chat shoots over to Ladybug who had grabbed hold of one of the smaller rips in the sky. He copies her and the sides of the portal start to close like it was ripped fabric. Ladybug uses the needle to weave though the rip and pulls to stitch it shut.

“Didn’t know you could sew my lady” Chat chirps as they fly to the next one, Ladybug gives a nervous giggle in return. They perform the same thing on the others and then charge to the biggest one, which was right above where the Agreste mansion once stood. 

“Okay Chat last one” Ladybug says using her ribbons to get the closing started, no more demons or colourful balls of light were left on the other side. Chat’s about to yank it closed when something catches his eye, it was Nathalie floating unconscious next to another woman covered in a blinding cloak. Without thinking he charges in. 

He feels weightless; Chat awkwardly makes his way over to the two women. The woman holding Nathalie looks up and drops her white hood, Chat can’t hold back a gasp “mom?” 

Upon hearing her tittle Emilie breaks into a large smile that creates lines on her eyes and cheeks. “Adrien is that really you?” she speaks making tears swell up in Chat’s eyes. It had been so long, he hadn’t realized he had almost forgotten what she sounded like. Emilie cups his face with her hand, slowly dragging it down as if she too had almost forgotten. 

Emilie looks down at Nathalie and gently caresses the other woman’s torso “Adrien promise me you’ll grow up strong and kind that you’ll marry for love but never forget to use your head”.

“Wait-“Chat’s voice cracks “the portal is right there, you can come back with us”. 

Emilie shakes her head and moves to place Nathalie on Chat’s lap, “I have to stay little Chaton I am bound by the deal”.

“What deal?” one of Chat’s hands clenches Emilie’s arm, terrified of her leaving again. “What deal?” he repeats with a whimper as she presses a kiss to his forehead. 

“To protect you” she holds him in her arms, both unable to separate till an awful buzzing comes from afar. Emilie forces the hug to end and holds Chat’s shoulders, turning her attention to the portal.

Ladybug’s voice rings from the other side “Chat where are you?’

Emilie smiles softly “go Adrian, your lady awaits you”

“But-“

GO, I can’t hold her off forever” Emile pleads pushing them away; Chat’s voice is stuck in his throat as he holds onto Nathalie. 

Emilie’s form shakes and the mosquito woman tries to take her place. Chat finds his voice and reaches for her “MOOOOOOOOOM!” 

The two falls though the portal allowing Ladybug to zip the portal closed, Chat nearly hits the ground before instinct kicked in and he turned to land on his feet. Nathalie lay limp but alive in his arms. Above his lady looked over the mostly destroyed city, she brings her yo-yo close and whispers to it. A quiet plea to fix her home on more time, her ribbons spread out like a ladybug’s wings as she summons the biggest miraculous cure she had ever done. 

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG” 

A shock wave is nearly visible from Ladybug’s yo-yo and it causes the bells of Paris to ring once more. Thousands of beetles some were red, some yellow and even some purple, begin their job to repair every city affected. She never got tired of watching them, destroyed buildings became good as new, injuries were healed and people cheered. She starts to float down when a powering down sound enters her ears; before her brain can register she’s falling.

Chat leaps over to catch Ladybug right as a green light flashes over him, he catches her in his arms and they both fall into a giant pile of ash.

She’s still coughing when a familiar voice breaks though the ash “you did it!” Tikki cheered flying down and hugging her cheek. 

“Tikki” Marionette cries in joy, nuzzling her kwami. She could hear Chat in front of her excitedly call for his kwami, who must have been Plagg was halfheartedly asking him to let him go. She suppressed a giggle then gasps as her brain puts it together. She was standing right in front of a non-transformed Chat Noir. Don’t look, don’t look, goes through her mind as she looks up at him. 

Marionette slaps a hand over her mouth but she can’t hold it down, laughter shakes from her body nearly making her fall over. “Chat your face…” she trails off making a sound like a toy that swallowed its squeaker. Both of them in fact had ash all over their face, Chat’s hair was completely covered in the soot sticking up in the worst kind of bedhead. Marionette’s hair wasn’t much better; the ends of the pigtails were frizzled like blown fire crackers. 

Adrien snorts then joins in on the laughter, “you should see yours Ladybug” he cackles throwing his head back. 

Ladybug stops laughing “oh Adrien…” passes by her lips in a whisper, Chat bolts his head up to see she was looking off to her left. He follows her gaze and at first thinks he’s seeing things, but no fast blinking would change the scene. Gabriel Agreste was being lead into a police car by Mr. Raincomplix; he could almost make out what the officer was saying before he slammed the car door. “He’s going to be devastated” he hears Ladybug say and Plagg sits quietly on his shoulder. People had started to crowd around the area and Ladybug’s grip on his arms tighten “I have to go Chat, I’ll see you tomorrow at the victory party”.

Adrien nods but doesn’t look at her, he listens to her footsteps only for them to be covered by rain starting to fall. The ash starts to wash away from his face “yeah…victory party” he mumbles watching paramedics take Nathalie from the ground and into an ambulance. A scrap of paper bumps against his leg and he bends to pick it up. It was a mostly burnt page of what used to be a family drawing he had done a long time ago. The safe must have protected it for the most bit which was why it remained surrounded by ash. It clicks to him where he was standing; the Agreste mansion was nothing more than ash, dust and rock. He wondered if the ladybug’s had missed repairing it on purpose. 

“Can’t wait”

Fu watches as Nathanial’s form reconstructed itself in front of him, the boy was passed out but his arms were frozen in a position of holding something close to him. A flash of purple and blue light appeared shortly after and Duusu and Nooroo flop to the ground. Fu picks up the butterfly miraculous and shares a look with Nooroo, the kwami smiled in a way that showed just how dark the circles under his eyes were. Fu puts the miraculous in his front pocket and opens it for the kwami to dive in; Nooroo does so and falls asleep before he even had a tight grip on his miraculous.

Fu then reaches for the peacock miraculous, his hand carefully moving to where the latch was.

“Please don’t”

Fu flinches at the kwami’s helpless tone, his eyes meet hers. She flies off the ground and lies on Nathaniel’s chest “please don’t” she repeats quietly.

“I don’t have a choice Duusu, he was corrupted. You know the rules…” Fu trails off as the kwami begins to sob. Her nubs on her miraculous, Fu could easily overpower her and she knew it. But when he gave a gentle tug she pulled back with all her might.

“He’s not anymore, please don’t take me away. He needs me” Duusu begs choking down a sob, the “I need him” not being said aloud. 

A sense of Déjà vu flows through Fu, he looks at the miraculous and Nathaniel’s face than back at Duusu’s. Faintly he can hear paramedics making their way over to him, his red shirt certainly stood out in the field of ash. 

“I’m sorry”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I see the show give me Marionette and Adrien not recognizing each other while wearing their costumes for a music video and give you Ladybug and Chat Noir not recognizing each other after losing the costume mid air because they got covered in soot.  
> One more chapter to go my friends


	25. Duusu's wish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we begin do you think the reason why Volpina could fly but so far Rena in the show hasn't is because a flying fox is actually a bat. In other words a false fox.  
> That being said enjoy the last chapter of Feather's up

Chapter 25 Duusu’s wish  
Adrien had always loved being Chat Noir, the freedom he felt not having to put on the face of the Agreste fashion line. Tonight was a little different; Adrien was trapped in one of the hospital rooms with reporters and lawyers alike trying to get inside. A police officer and the gorilla were keeping them at bay but Adrian couldn’t stay locked up any longer. He jumped out the window and fell several floors before a flag pole caught him. The rain had stopped making his heightened senses pick up everything around him, a mouse crawling on the streets below. It scratched at some leaves and knocked over a can, normally Chat would joke about acting like a cat but right now he didn’t care. He pounced down onto a fire escape and then slide down to the ground landing on all fours, his night vision gave him an easy view of the small creature tangled in some string. Chat stalked closer to it, the mouse squeaked in alarm at the glowing green eyes.

An ugly meow breaks Chat out of his haze; he turns to a garbage can to find the culprit. It was a black Persian with striking green eyes; he meowed again and jumped down from the can to approach tail in the air. 

“You a stray little fella” Chat mutters holding his hand out for the cat to smell, it meowed again and rubbed its head on him. Chat sat down to scratch the cats ears, it must have been a fighter based off the condition on its ears torn in several places. “I guess I’m a stray now too” Chat added his own ears drooping, the cat began to purr slightly and he let it ease him for a while. 

A paw boops his nose making Chat open his eyes, the cat looked up at the hospital then back at him. “I won’t be seeing Nathalie for a while, I heard they put her into a coma” Chat mutters wondering why the heck he was bothering to tell a cat this.

The cat didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at one part of the building. Chat followed its gaze and raised a brow, he couldn’t quite place it but something felt off. “I think I’m going to go check on Nath” he said standing up and walking to the end of the ally. He looks back for a moment to see the cat sitting almost proudly then walking off into the darkness. He pays it no mind and uses his staff to scale up the building, using his claws to crack open the window and slip in.

A small figure stood at the base of his bed with an iPad in her hands, Chat softly stalked towards her as she typed on it. Her hair was tied in four pigtails that ran far down her back, black with a sleek purple strike in each. Chat was right behind her when she looked up and jumped back twirling to face him, 

“what the hell are you doing?” she snaps closing the iPad and holding it close to her chest. 

“I could ask you the same kid, you don’t look like family” Chat fired back standing tall to tower over her. 

“That’s none of your business piss-head” the girl growls and runs out of the room, Chat moves to the doorway but the girl seemed to have vanished. Chat sighs and looks back at the bed; Nath looked like he hadn’t moved since he last saw him. 

He hears loud footsteps approach the door and jumps out the window not wanting an awkward conversation with the doctor. He sneaks a peak to see Nathaniel’s mom sitting on the bed listening to what the doctor was saying. No serious conditions thanks to Ladybug’s cure but getting your entire body destroyed by a cataclysm still had taken a toll. Guilt bit at Chat as he half listened to the doctor, it wasn’t his fault but the feeling was all the same. 

 

Fu tapped his pen against the paper at his desk; he had been putting this off for a while. Ever since becoming guardian in fact, he had been avoiding this task. In his defense he couldn’t do it exactly since the book was missing up until this day but Wayzz had told him multiple times all he had to do was write it down on some paper to transfer to the book once it was found. The turtle wasn’t here anymore but Fu could still feel his comforting presence, encouraging him to begin. He finally clicked the pen and began to write.

Fu was about twelve when he made his first mistake, the boys in his class had dared him to enter the temple at midnight. All he had to do was steal a blade of grass from the dragon; he knew darn well the dragon was only a teacher. But when he had grasped a blade of grass and heard her footsteps approaching, he had panicked and ran into the nearest room. That was when he met Duusu; she had been forcibly removed from her holder. Since her holder never gave her up Duusu was free to wail loudly in the room the guardians confined her in. Fu had always been soft hearted; he listened to the kwami’s story and offered his assistance. But what could they do? The guardians had Duusu’s miraculous and were working on making her inactive, there was no way Fu could steal it from them.

Luck had been on their side, Fu passed by the resting place for the last Ladybug. A grand grave with Ladybug’s carved into the stone. In the stone on two ladybugs were the earrings of creation, a tradition for fallen miraculous wielders to allow the kwami to say goodbye. In the offering where candles or incense would be placed was none other than the ring of destruction. The idea that came to Fu’s mind clouded out the mystery of the black cat’s fate, so much so that he took both miraculous’s to tell Duusu his idea.

They had to be careful, they decided on one day. For one day Duusu wouldn’t be bound to her miraculous but she still would be able to communicate with humans. They weren’t specific on the wish, so Fu was surprised when Duusu form glowed and stretched into a human with peacock features. Fu gasped when she threw her wings around him in thanks. Then like an angel she vanished, no doubt to find her wielder far from the temple. 

The earrings and ring were all about balance, Fu would realize soon. To give Duusu humanity would mean someone had to lose it in return. 

“Duusu gained some abilities from her time as a human, she could withhold truths even lie to her future holders” Fu spoke aloud as he wrote the note down. Future guardians would benefit from that little knowledge “she also has more free will when it comes to her wielder, if someone tries to wield her while deactivated she decides if she’ll activate or not”. 

He looks over to a box sitting innocently at his desk; he picked it up and ran his thumb over the surface. “Duusu always got so attached to her wielders, calling them her peachicks like they were her young” he said into the empty room. “Such attachment might cloud her judgement-“he stands up and throws a backpack over his shoulders. “-But I have a feeling she made the right choice” maybe it was his third mistake to leave Duusu with the boy. Yet when he turned his heads to the heavens to apologize to his elders he felt nothing but peace. He could only hope the peace remained as he did something that hadn’t been done for hundreds of years. 

He flips open the box and faintly smirks at his reflection “but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone behind the scenes to keep an eye on them” he could almost see Nooroo’s smirk. 

“I want to repair the damage Gabriel did using my power, find me someone able to see the goodness in others and I’ll make you proud” echoed in his ears. 

Fu clicked the box with the butterfly miraculous closed, “I know just the person to ask Nooroo”. He gives one last look at his old shop then closes the door. 

Chat slid into the room to find a bundle of blankets had been placed on the bed, after waking up Nath had no desire to stay at the hospital with all the voices outside and had gone home at first opportunity. His mom was downstairs trying to shoo away the obnoxious paparazzi, if Chat listened he could hear her strained patience at their heartless questioning.

Chat went to sit on the bed next to the lump “Hey Nath how’s it going?” the lump doesn’t respond so Chat pokes it a few times. Finally the lump moves to a sitting position and the blanket falls to reveal Nathaniel’s face. 

“I was hoping Paon could join us for the victory party, Carapace is bringing pizza” Chat said trying his best to appear as positive and energetic as he normally did. 

Nath flinched and hugged his knees “I don’t think Paon deserves to be at that party, Paon’s done nothing but bring trouble” he admits looking over to meet Chat’s eyes. 

“Nath you’re not saying-“

“That I’m giving up? Yes” Nath cuts him off, “Hawk moth has been controlling me since the beginning, using me to hurt people, I’ve never been a hero” his lip trembles and bows his head into his knees. Chat grabs his shoulder while he breaths through clenched teeth trying to keep quiet “just take Duusu Chat; find her someone who’s not just a puppet”. 

“I can’t do that” Chat says with such power he sounded much older. His hand squeezes Nath’s shoulder “no one else in Paris…no the world could replace you as Paon and you know that”.

Nathaniel bites his lip until he tasted blood “but hawk moth-“

“I bet you Hawk moth didn’t tell you to save that kid in Achu, or to destroy those shadow akuma’s in the most show off way possible” Chat cuts him off making Nath look up at him. 

Duusu flies out from the bathroom with such speed she smacks into the two boys. “Nath you’ve done something incredible” she breaths out then blinks in confusion “is everything okay?” 

Chat looks back to Nath and he shakes his head slightly, a quiet plea not to tell her. Chat spies the silver necklace in Duusu’s nubs; it looked like a snake biting its own tail with an amethyst for an eye. “We’re okay, what were you saying?” 

Duusu flies down and hands Nathaniel the necklace “you somehow purified both Ennzo and his miraculous” she cries regaining her energy. “I just tried a bunch of tests and it’s completely clean, not even Ladybug could do that” she adds jumping up and down on his knee. 

“I don’t know how I did that” Nath admits scratching his neck while letting the necklace roll around in his free hand. “Can we activate it?” he asks watching Duusu fly up to touch the necklace.

“He’s very weak, it would be best if we allow him to rest for now” Duusu replies staring at the snake’s eye, for half a second the eye glows slightly. 

A beeping sound comes from Chat’s baton and he clicks it quiet “that’s Carapace telling me to help with the pizza”. Duusu takes the necklace and puts it in the best looking box in the room. A broken music box Nath got from a garage sale. Duusu removed the paintbrushes to make room for the miraculous. 

“Let’s go with him, maybe Bee will give you a victory kiss” Duusu teases making Nath blush as red as his hair. Chat chuckles wondering if his lady would do the same. 

 

Ladybug lands at the meeting spot with a large dotted backpack attached to her normal costume. She slides it to the ground and yawns looking to her side, where the heck was everyone?

“LADYBUG” Bee squealed flying out of nowhere and picking Ladybug up, she twirled her around in excitement. “We won, we actually won” she cries finally setting a very dizzy Ladybug down. 

Rena lands beside them and puts a hand on Ladybug’s shoulders before she falls down, “you were amazing up there LB, I had no idea you could fly”.

“Neither did I” Ladybug admits with a giggle, “did you remember the drinks?” Rena pulls out two boxes of pop from a black backpack she had on. 

“Anyone order a pizza, or two or twelve?” Chat cries from above and lands in front of the girls with four boxes in his arms. Carapace is right behind him with several more boxes; Paon flies down with a bag of bread sticks. 

“Paon” Bee jumps onto him sending the bread sticks flying, “where the heck were you? You missed me knock over the Eiffel tower” she cries wings flapping excitedly. 

“I was uh…fighting the Black Prince” Paon blurts flinching slightly at the gasps from the rest of the team. 

“Yeah…he literally came out of nowhere and grabbed Paon, I didn’t ’t tell you guys earlier cause…you know the akuma then the whole deal with Hawk moth” Chat chimes in ears drooping when Hawk moth was mentioned. 

The sound of a can opening makes the crew look over at Carapace “that makes this a celebration of both the end of Hawk moth and the corrupt” he says holding the pop can up like one would a glass of wine. 

A few minutes later the whole team sits down in front of many boxes of pizza, Bee had tried to refuse a slice at first but gave in from hunger. It wasn’t a big deal that she could treat herself to peasant food this once, nobody had to know. Rena demanded answers from Paon about how the battle went with the Prince and Paon did a decent enough job thinking up a story on the spot. 

“He had an awful fascination with you” Paon says looking at Bee, she pauses on her forth slice of cheese pizza. 

She flips her ponytail allowing it to bounce cutely “well I can’t blame him, I am true royalty after all” she purrs holding a hand over her chest.

“And so modest too” Rena chirps taking a swig of her drink.

“Speaking of me did you get some awesome shots for the Lady Blog?” Bee asks leaning in to see what shots Rena had this time. The fox’s ears droop and she bites her lip, yet another epic battle and she had no photo or video to show for it. Her bloggers were going to be so disappointed, she’s about to give Bee the bad news when Carapace bumps her shoulder.

“I uh figured with everything going on you may have missed making an Alya illusion so well here” he holds his wrist out to show the phone attached had dozens of photos right up in the action. Rena squeals swiping though them finding close ups of her and Bee, a nice angle of Ladybug and Chat’s special costumes as they fought a giant peacock and mysterious rider. Although there were some which were just snapshots of the air, Carapace frowned at them “those were supposed to be of our light bulb friends”.

Ladybug studied the photos with a thoughtful frown “that proves it then, those were kwami”. She walks over to the roofs edge to look down at the crowds celebrating by dancing or jumping around “these people are in danger so long as the knights of sin are loose” she says holding her yo-yo close to her heart.

“I thought kwami were only as good or evil as their holder” Carapace says recalling his first chat with Wayzz.

“They have become corrupted while trapped in the other world; the kwami may have become as evil as their past holders. We’re going to have to catch every one of them and try to purify them”

“How do you know?” Paon asks sitting down with his feet over the edge. He couldn’t help but think back to the memory, the word evil just didn’t fit the boy he had seen freeze to death in the snow. 

“I don’t know, ever since Chat and I got those special costumes it’s been like Tikki’s able to communicate with me. Not with words but like images and feelings..and some of those images weren’t pretty” Ladybug says with a serious look that turns warm. “I feel closer than ever with her” she turns to Chat who was just about to bite into a glob of cheese with pizza somewhere in there.

“Maybe that’s why I have such a craving for cheese” Chat jokes wondering just how much that was going to bite him in the butt later. 

Ladybug spies her parents down below dancing with one another; she smiles as Tom lifts Sabine like she was his world. She adjusts the backpack on her shoulders “oh right I got a surprise for you guys” Ladybug spins to face her team and opens the backpack. 

Inside were orange, green, black, yellow and blue photo albums. Ladybug handed each team member their corresponding colours, a smirk forming on her lips as each takes a look inside.

The books started out with a photo of each of them with stats next to them, some of it was serious like Paon having the highest speed stat, Bee having the highest power and Carapace having best defense. Then there were things like Chat’s pun stat, which was better than Paon’s by one bar. Further into the books were photos taken by Rena’s illusion or Ladybug herself, including the group photo they did during the London underwater incident. Paon chuckled at the one of him being thrown at an akuma by Bee with a less than impressed expression. The caption to that photo was “the bird keeps itself in flight by sheer force of anger”. Chat giggled at one which was of him and Paon finding a cat during a patrol, the cat had favored Paon and in the photo was sitting on his lap while Chat pretended to pout. Rena loved the ones of her posing with dogs around Paris and Bee’s favorite was one of her and Ladybug posing with “Bug buddies” as the caption. 

“These came out awesome LB” Rena chirps flipping a page and something flutters to the floor. The rest of the crew find similar pages inside the books “Paris dog show?” Rena reads out loud looking to Ladybug shocked.

“You signed me up to be a judge at the flower show?” Bee cried showing the ad on her paper which had her name listed with the judges. “And it’s on a Sunday, I don’t work Sundays” she added with a whine, Ladybug’s smirk didn’t fade. 

“I got story time with Chat at the children’s hospital” Chat chirps with enthusiasm until another paper falls out of his book. “And to attend a showing on endangered species…which is over four hours” boredom seeps into his voice. 

“Same but I also got a new exhibit in the aquarium” Carapace says looking to Paon who had gone the most pale. 

“You signed me for an interview on TV?” he squeaks out feeling his cheeks burn at the thought. 

Bee glared at him “What’s so bad about that?” 

“People everywhere want to know what the deal is with the corrupt, and you are currently the only one able to purify them” Ladybug said zipping her backpack back up. “You need to talk with the people you’re protecting, it’s part of the job Paon”, the bird in turn can only make out a squeak in reply. 

“The lady blog needs you for an interview too, you’re the only one Alya hasn’t done” Rena chimes in excitement in her eyes. But it sinks the second Ladybug continues talking. 

“We’re also all going to London next Saturday to attend the new miraculous hero’s section at the wax museum” Ladybug adds clicking on her yo-yo. Seconds later each hero looks at their phone to find their calendar app filled with events they had to do. 

“No fair, you promised if we beat Hawk moth we’d get two weeks without patrol” Bee whined.

“And you don’t have any solo acts, what’s that all about?” Rena adds not caring that she matched Bee’s level of whining.

“Well I would have taken some for myself if my team had been honest with me-“ Ladybug starts pretending to look at her nails “-I may have checked the news before coming back to Paris”.

Paon is absolutely lost while Rena, Bee, Chat and Carapace exchange looks of fear. Ladybug puts her hands on her hips “I don’t appreciate being lied to” Ladybug states so calmly it just makes them more terrified. “So maybe doing some good publicity for the people of Paris will remind you just how important honesty is to a good team”.

“Ladybug” Chat whines

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that” Rena mutters

“I can’t believe I agreed to that plan” Carapace cries throwing his arms into the air.

“I thought we were bug buddies” Bee wails posing like she was in a soap opera.

“I’m so confused” Paon mutters closing his book. 

Suddenly there’s a beeping in Ladybug’s hand, she clicks open the yo-yo and yelps at the time. “Sorry guys I promised my friends I’d join them in the celebration” she grabs one more slice of pizza then swings out of sight. The team groans but cleans up the garbage and says their own good byes, all saying they also had plans to attend to.

 

Paon expected Chat to follow him home but is surprised when he grabs him and yanks him down into the ally’s below. “Okay Paon we’re covered, drop the costume” he orders with a mysterious smile, he drops his costume and Paon does the same. When the lights fade Adrien throws Plagg a slice of his beloved cheese without missing a beat. Before Nathaniel can ask Adrien tosses a chunk of sandwich to Duusu “alright come on” Adrien gives a follow me motion and the kwami’s go to their hiding spots. 

“Adrien what are you planning?” Nathaniel hisses as Duusu snuggles in under his jacket with a giggle.

Instead of answering Adrian opens the front door of Nathaniel’s house and pushes the boy inside, the lights click on “SURPRISE!” 

Nathaniel jumps back at the sound of everyone yelling, Adrian laughs and hits him on the back while Nath takes in his surroundings. Nino, Alya, Rose and Juleka sat on the couch with brightly coloured boxes beside them. Marionette ran from the kitchen and slipped on the carpet as she tends to do. Her head pops up from behind the couch with an embarrassed smile “surprise” she squeaks just above the giggles around her. There was a banner above them that read “happy birthday”.

“You didn’t think with everything that happened today that we forgot your birthday did ya?” Rose squeaks jumping off the couch and throwing her arms around him. 

“I uh, I think I forgot” Nathaniel admits making the room laugh once more, his mom comes out of the kitchen licking some frosting off her fingers.

“This was certainly the most eventful sweet sixteen, Marionette could you help me finish the cake?” 

Marionette accepts Alya’s hand up and calmly walks over to help; she’s fine up until Adrian smiles at her then she proceeds to trip over a footrest. Alya slaps her forehead and groans. 

“Hey where’s-“ Adrien is cut off by the doorbell ringing behind him, Nathaniel’s breath catches in his throat as Chloe steps in.

“The party can now begin now that you’ve been blessed with my presence” Chloe purrs with a giggle in her tone. Sabrina walks behind her dragging a cooler behind her, although thankfully this one had wheels so she wasn’t struggling. Chloe twirls and hands Nathanial a box wrapped in black and yellow wrapping paper “open mine first please” she orders hoping her blush wasn’t noticeable.

Nathaniel swallows and picks apart the wrapping paper, trying his best to ignore the cheeky grins his friends were giving him. He held up the DVD and his mouth opened in surprise, “the miraculous adventures of Ladybug and Cat Noir, the mysterious Paon” was written on the cover. The cover had Ladybug and Chat Noir from the anime on the sides with a third figure in the middle with his back to the camera. He had his arms out with a fan in each hand, his feathers highlighted by the moonlight above. The company name “Tag toons” was written in the bottom left corner. 

Adrian peeks over his shoulder “no way that isn’t supposed to come out for months” the other kids gather round to see and Chloe smirks at their excitement.

“My daddy has his ways, I heard from Adrien he was your favorite” she says signaling Sabrina to step forward “and we brought drinks” Sabrina opens the cooler to reveal multiple unmarked bottles. 

Once everyone was seated Marionette comes out with a small cake, they sing and then she cuts them all a slice. An angel food cake with blue raspberry icing, Nath hides a laugh when he hears Duusu muffle a plea to have some. 

Then came the rest of the gift opening, Juleka gave him a brand new drawing pad, Alya gave him a set of miraculous themed pencils and paintbrushes. Marionette handed him a brand new schoolbag she had made herself, it was teal and had had vines on the pattern. One of the inside pockets was made with fake fur “Adrien suggested that” she squeaked with a blush making Nathaniel smirk at him. 

Nino’s gift was a mix CD of tracks he had created for Nath to listen to while he drew “they’re perfect for battle scenes” the DJ chirped adjusting his hat. He raised a brow at Rose’s gift, a bunch of hair ties and a solid black hairband. 

“I noticed you were growing your hair long again so I thought you’d need it out of your way when you paint” she explained with a shrug. 

Last but not least was Adrian’s gift, the modal presented it proudly and leaned back on his chair. Adrien threw a thankful look at Nino for holding onto the gift so they worked well with the tracks. And you know not get crushed with the house. Nathaniel took one look at the headphones and threw him another smirk; they contained two blue cat ears on top that lit up with a green light. 

“Oh perfect, to match that hat of yours” Rose giggles.

“Don’t forget Sabrina’s gift” Chloe says opening a small cooler within the cooler and pulling out a pink wine glass. Sabrina tries to squeak that it wasn’t hers but Chloe shushes her “they were your idea so you can take credit”. Sabrina beams as she hands everyone a glass and pours them their choice of drink, Nathaniel’s smile faltered by how sticky the glasses were. 

“Chloe these are awful sticky” Alya is first to blurt it out.

Chloe finishes her pop in one sip and smirks at Alya “That’s because they’re the treat” without another word she bites into the glass and chews on it. 

“It’s sugar glass, that’s so cool Sabrina” Marionette chirps taking a bite of her glass, Sabrina shyly smiles from the compliments.

“Now let’s watch the movie” Adrien adds wiping his hands on a napkin, he chuckles nervously at the anxious looks the rest of them shared. “Look right now I’d like to pretend whatever rumor you may have heard tonight isn’t true so” he doesn’t finish hoping everyone got what he was trying to say. Everyone awkwardly agrees and Nino proceeds to set up the TV. 

A few minutes after the opening credits Pollen sighs softly from her hiding spot on the shut off ceiling light. In her nubs was a plastic shot glass filled with tea and sweetened to nearly undrinkable levels with honey. Despite the movie being decent she had a scowl on her face, she knew Duusu was behind her. She knew Duusu was making that stupid face, that stupid face she always makes when her wielder does something cute. Down below Chloe and Nathaniel was eating out of the same bowl of popcorn, they were bound to brush hands at some point and they were going to shy away all adorable like. 

She loved Chloe, but Chloe’s biggest enemy was herself. Pollen had watched Chloe talk herself into frenzy with worry several times; lately it had all been about the same two boys. Who as Pollen had pieced together was the exact same boy. She took a long sip of her tea; she hadn’t had enough sugar to deal with this crap. 

“Oh man Alya you’ve got a gold mine here” 

Pollen jerks to the sound of Trixx whispering beside her, the fox kwami had a cup of hot chocolate in his paws. She followed his eyes before she could stop herself to his wielder sneakily taking a photo of Chloe leaning on Nathaniel to grab her drink on the ground.  
“Trixx what are you doing, you can’t just point out your wielder like that” Pollen whisper yells. Trixx just smirks at her and waves to Duusu as she flies to sit with them with a cup of her own. 

“Come on Pollen it’s no big deal if we know” Trixx whispers and Duusu giggles.

“I knew your wielder had to be the cutie with the fluffy hair” Duusu coos play punching Trixx by leaning across Pollen nearly spilling their drinks.

“At least Tikki understands the importance” Pollen mumbles

“How’s the view of the movie from here?” Tikki asks sitting beside Duusu, a cup of tea in her nubs.

Pollen is frozen in a silent scream as Plagg sits by Trixx with a god damn cup of cheese dip. “This movie is hilarious” he whispers to Trixx and the two share a laugh. 

Tikki sets her drink down and turns to Duusu “Duusu I’m sorry for what I said, you chose your wielder well”.

Duusu smiles and puts her drink down “I’m sorry too, it was rude of me to leave like that” she opens her arms with tears pricking at her eyes “hug?”

“Hug” Tikki confirms and Duusu jumps into her little arms. 

“Ha, ha you guys are all doomed” Wayzz says watching Nino lean over to grab Alya’s hand, then promptly fell over and slid down the light. 

“Okay who spiked his tea?” Tikki asks and Trixx’s paw goes up.

Pollen sighs and her head falls forward “no Pollen, don’t drown in the tea” Trixx cries trying not to laugh. 

Two hours later Rose and Juleka have fallen asleep on the couch, Sabrina was helping Caline put away the dishes. Nath was frozen in shock watching the credits; Chloe was almost sitting on him dissecting the movie with Nino. Marionette was in a similar state on the arm chair with a handful of popcorn almost at her mouth. 

And Adrian and Alya were having a fan-gasm on the floor.

“Oh my god he had the opportunity to kiss her and he didn’t because she was under a spell, he’s falling in love with her” Adrian cried rolling on the ground from the sugar and excitement. 

“And Paon in this movie holy crap what a character” Alya adds throwing her arms up into the air “he flirted with both Chat and Ladybug, that’s freaking hilarious”. 

“Oh man and that ending, I can’t wait for the next one” Adrien says as the last credit rolls and like with marvel movies it had a clip to tease the next movie. Everyone with a secret identity screams in a mix of terror and excitement, scaring the crap out of Rose and Juleka.

Nathaniel waves as his friends head back home in either their parent’s cars or drivers, before Adrien can get too far he grabs his hand. 

“Adrien uh-“he starts looking down in shame “-would you mind staying here tonight? I don’t want to be alone in case Hawk moth activates some kind of programming…” 

Adrien bites his lip “you know Hawk moth is locked up right now, he can’t get to you” he whispers so the others walking away don’t hear. 

“I know” Nath starts forcing his voice to stay steady “I just don’t want to be alone” Adrien forces a smile and grabs his shoulder.

“Sure, just let me tell Nino there’s a change of plans” he says then heads over to where Nino was waiting, Nino had instantly offered his home to Adrien when it was clear his old house wasn’t coming back. 

“Okay bro but don’t be afraid to call me alright? Call me at 3 am to talk about my dog if you want, I’ll be here for you” Nino says hugging Adrien and slapping him on the back. Adrian nods and hugs him back, not letting Nino see the tears that threatened to fall. 

“We all are” Marionette says from behind him, Alya throws her into the group hug. 

“I need my beauty sleep but my daddies hotel is always open to you, if you need a place to stay I can get you the best room with a view” Chloe added glomping Adrien from behind. She allowed Marionette in her precious friend’s space for just this once.

“Thanks guys” Adrien can’t bring his voice any higher than a whisper, he really did have a great group of friends. They broke it up after a moment and Adrien turned to Caline at the front door, the teacher leaned over to give him a hug of her own.

Nino paused at the door to the car then looked up at his mom; she nodded and gestured to the trunk. He grabbed the bag out of the trunk and ran over to Adrien before he disappeared behind the door. Nino grabs his shoulder with the sleeping bag under his arms “this is your first sleep over right? You’re gonna need me to show you how it’s done”. 

“You two are welcome to stay, just don’t stay up all night” Caline says closing the door behind them, the chorus of “we won’t” coming from all three of them as they head to Nathanial’s room. 

Three minutes later the three boys had created a bed on the floor from just about every blanket and pillow in the house. Nath was fiddling with the present his mom had left on his bed before they tore the blankets off, a new phone. He turns the device off and sits beside Adrien; Nino was downstairs plugging his phone in the kitchen. 

“Thanks for staying Adrian” Nath says to fill the silence, Adrian nods and leans back on his bed. “How are you holding up?” 

Adrien sighs before answering “I’m fine Nath, really I am” he says with an unconvincing smile. Nathaniel is at a loss at what to do, he glances up at the bathroom to see Duusu wave at him then zip out of sight. 

She clearly wanted him for something; Nath looks back as Nino comes into the room and sits beside Adrien waiting for him to talk. Nathaniel let out a sigh and excused himself, it would be best he let Nino help Adrien out. Despite sharing quite the secret between them Nino was Adrien’s best friend, Nino would be the one Adrien could talk to.

“Did you have a good party Nath?” Duusu asks once he had shut the door behind him. 

“I did, how long did you know about it?” Nathaniel says but isn’t really listening, ears strained to hear what was going on in the other room. 

“Adrien I know you’re not fine, you can talk to me” Nino was saying putting one hand on Adrien’s shoulder, Adrien was hugging his knees with his head ducked like a makeshift ball. 

“What’s really there to say? Tomorrow my father goes on trial for being a super villain, Nathalie is in the hospital in a medically induced coma, and for all I know I’ll be going to orphanage since my house is gone and my father’s freaking Hawk moth!”

Adrien throws a fist over his mouth to shut himself up “dude just let it out” Nino orders grabbing a pillow and hitting Adrien softly with it.

“What more can I say Nino? Turns out when I think my father and I are finally having a relationship, Hawk moth pulls of his mask and is all like-“Adrien makes his voice low and robotic “-I am your father”. He grabs a pillow and hits Nino back; “he’s the one that hurt so many people didn’t give a crap that people would be dead if Ladybug wasn’t there and…” he trails off into angry rambling which turns into a pillow fight. 

“He was behind that akuma attack during my physics test” he wacks Nino on the side, then blocks Nino’s swing. Nino smirks and jumps up on the bed to continue the battle on a bouncy surface, Adrien right behind him.

“He destroyed our house to make a freaking chrysalis statue thing” Adrien gets a good shot on Nino’s side knocking him to the ground. “AND I’M SO SICK OF SECRETS AND LIES” he screams jumping off the bed to wack Nino with all his might. 

Nino falls on his back dazed and Adrien stops attacking “sorry” he chokes out. He almost jumps back in surprise when Nino starts laughing; he stumbles to his feet and adjusts his glasses.

“Nice shot, now unleash hell” Nino cries then launches himself at Adrian aiming for his side, Adrien reacts and starts rapid fire swinging. Every emotion swirling in Adrien’s gut released with each swing, the confusion and anger left him for a precious moment. For a little while he wasn’t the newly discovered son of Hawk moth, he was just the pillow fighting champion. 

Duusu chuckles knowing Nath was eager to go back and join in on the battle, “I’ll make this quick peachick, I have a gift of my own for you”. 

Nathaniel scratches his ear and a cheeky smile meets his lips “you’re not going to throw up are you?” 

Duusu puts her nubs where her hips would be “just because some birds regurgitate their food doesn’t mean I do it”. She reaches behind and pulls out a feather from her back, before Nath could ask she flies down and wraps it around his middle finger on his left hand. Once she has a size she’s satisfied with, she proceeds to shove the feather in her mouth. Nath looks both confused and a tad disgusted as she hums and spins with it then she spits it at him.

His reflexes catch the object before it splats on his face, “um, ew” is all he can say voice growing high like he was asking a question. The slightly glowing spit falls off revealing the feather had crystallized into pretty silver like metal. 

“Us kwami create these Kwagatama as a symbol of friendship to our wielders, I like to go beyond the usual design” Duusu explains helping Nath slip the ring on. Where the “eye” of the feather would be was a dark blue jewel.

“It’s awesome Duusu, thank you” 

“Nath I need backup” Nino cries from the bedroom, what sounded like Adrien laughing was heard as well. Nathaniel smirks and uses one of the hair ties from Rose to tie his hair in a ponytail, then runs out to grab a weapon. Duusu giggles and zips downstairs to get some leftover cake before the other kwami ate it all. 

Nino was backed against the wall with Adrien using the pillow with one hand; Nath grabs and throws one pillow into Adrien’s face then slides to grab a second one to smack into his gut. Adrien drops the pillow caught off guard, Nino takes the opportunity to jump up into the bed and tackle him to the ground.  
A little bit of super hero training comes into play as the pillow fight continues, they continue at it until they all collapse on the blankets below. 

“Alright birthday boy, you win” Nino gasps acting like it was a grand battle he had lost, Nath laughs and mutters something into his pillow. Nino throws a small pillow at the switch and manages to swallow the room in darkness; he shuffles inside his sleeping bag not going to bother with pajamas. “Good night guys”.

 

Nathaniel opened his eyes to a pitch black room; it felt hot and stuffy like the inside of a creature. Nath stumbled though the room and his feet sink into the floor, he groans in disgust trying to pull out of the goo. 

“Did you think you could escape?” a deep voice booms in front of him, Nath jumped in surprise but his trapped foot made him just fall to the ground. A purple light lit up the room revealing just how disgusting it was, the black goo on the walls reflected off the light. Nath looked down at his foot to find the goo was moving and pulsing, it made a sucking sound as he tried to pull free. The light dimmed and morphed into a figure “you will always belong to me”. 

“NO” Nathaniel screamed trying to pull away from Hawk moth; the goo swallowed his hands like quicksand. Hawk moth grinned ear to ear and put his cane under Nathaniel’s chin to force him to look up at him.

“Quiet little pup-“ 

“NOOOO” Nathaniel thrashed wildly cutting the villain off; he pulls one hand free and grabs hold of the cane. He yanks it free and swings wildly; it vibrates painfully in his hands as it makes contact with Hawk moth. 

Hawk moth starts to laugh while holding his face with his hands, Nath gasps as the cane melts into goo trapping his hand once more. Hawk moth stands tall revealing his mask had been ripped off but instead of a human face it was thousands of leaches forming a human face. “Stop fighting puppet” he purrs stalking towards Nathaniel in an unnatural way as if he had no bones. Nathaniel screams as the man collapses on him covering him with leaches, he thrashed as they crawled through his hair and over his face.

“Nath wake up” 

Nathaniel gasps and grabs hold of Nino’s wrists, “you’re okay, it was just a nightmare” Nino says calmly waiting for Nathaniel’s death grip to relax. Adrien groans and a lump of blankets pop up where his head would be, Nath slowly let Nino’s wrists go taking slow breaths. Nino took one look at Nath’s pale face and smiles softly “I got just the thing for nightmares, will you be okay here?” Nathaniel nods and Nino leaves the room, Adrian pulls the blankets off revealing his hair was as messy as it was when he was Chat. 

As soon as the door was shut Duusu flies out of her hiding spot and smacks into Nathaniel’s chest “I woke up as soon as I heard you calling out, thank goodness your friend was there”. Turtle wielders were always so selfless and kind, for that she was thankful. 

“It was about Hawk moth wasn’t it?” Adrien asked sitting up, Nath’s shameful look to the ground was all the answer he needed. 

“I hope it was just a nightmare” Nath muttered using one hand to hug Duusu’s little body. Neither Duusu nor Adrien can ask before the Nino opens the door. Duusu quickly hid in Nathaniel’s shirt before he saw her. 

“Okay this vid helps me out whenever something freaks me out” Nino holds up his phone and sits between the two. Adrien shrugs and squints as the bright light comes on, Nino presses play on the video.

The video started with a large snake slithering around on the ground, “ah the mighty python on the hunt for prey” an Australian voice says with interest. The snake lifts his head “and like all her fellow snakes she must taste the air to check her surroundings”.

PPPPPPHHHHHTTTTT!

A human raspberry plays over the snakes tongue; all three of them crack up as it switches to the next animal. A spider with its back to the camera only for a finger to poke its butt, the goofy scream plays as it scatters away. A creepy girl from some horror movie slips on set and a British toddler drops an F bomb. 

The rest of the video plays like that; a creature that was normally feared was made a joke out of. Not in the most mature way but it was perfect for three sleep deprived boys at two in the morning. Once it’s over Nath clicks the phone off and glances over at Nino, dude had already fallen back asleep and was snoring loudly. Adrien yawned and went to fall asleep muttering good night, Nath was about to do the same when he hears a tiny thump by the window. 

He creeps over and hears muffled swearing from outside, swallowing his fear he throws open the window and looks out. He blinks in confusion not expecting to see her again so soon, Queen Bee was quietly shooing away a bird that was attacking her head. 

“Queen Bee?” 

Bee finally managed to get the bird to leave and waves shyly, “uh hi…I uh heard it was your birthday, just thought I’d stop by on patrol”. That was a lie; it wasn’t Bee’s turn to patrol. If Nath remembered correctly it was Rena’s and Ladybug’s night. “So happy birthday red” she continues presenting her gift from behind her back, a single red rose with the thorns removed. 

“Uh thank you” Nath says feeling his face warm, he missed the shy smile on Bee’s lips as he trailed a finger down the petals. 

“It matches your hair” Bee added running a hand though her ponytail, a tinge of pride in her chest for thinking of a gift before she got to his house. She was sure the garden she took it from wouldn’t miss it. 

“You did say you liked my hair” Nath blurts tucking some loose bangs behind his ear, he freezes realizing he said that out loud. Bee’s eyes were wide and a question was stuck on her tongue, Nath chuckles nervously “when uh, I was imprisoned by Witchy words I heard some things that you said”

“Like what things” Bee demanded quietly flying right up in his face, her memory flashing back to that conversation. 

-Flashback-

Bee’s timer started as soon as she entered the tower, she glared at Nathaniel on the bed and let her costume fall.

“What did I tell you about losing the costume in front of people” Pollen hissed seconds after appearing, Chloe sent her an equal grouchy look. 

Chloe wrinkled her nose “it’s fine Pollen, he’s sleeping beauty right now” she growled crossing her arms. Pollen grabbed her honey treats and waited for the Mentos to hit the cola. Chloe tapped her finger on her arm then her face went bright red.

“I can’t stand you Nathaniel, I can’t believe how frustrating you’re making my life” she fumes stamping her foot. Frustrated tears burn at her eyes “every time I try to start something with Paon all I can think about is you, your stupid face, the way you draw me as Queen Bee, how excited you look whenever Alya brings up her lady blog, and how cute your damn hair is”. She wipes at her eyes growling as her makeup smears and makes her eyes look bruised “one time I even kissed Paon and neither of us was under a spell, it was dark and we were without our costumes”. Her fist clenched “and I freaking imagined I was kissing you!”

Chloe sighed and closed her eyes, Pollen took that as an opportunity to speak “Chloe” she says gently. “I think I’ve given you the wrong advice and for that I apologise. Trying to force you to confess to Paon your feelings and concerns is stressing you out”. 

Chloe looked confused but her face remained a puffed pink, “you’re still young and have a long life ahead of you, there’s no rush to get into a romantic relationship. Let your friendship grow and don’t feel pressured into confessing.”

“What so I don’t confess at all?” Chloe snapped glancing at the sleeping boy then back at the kwami. 

“No what I’m saying is be confident, Paon calls you his queen of course he will like you mask or not. You’re the same spoiled girl who rushes into things without thinking and eats way too much sugar before bed”. Pollen straightens out the comb in Chloe’s hair “don’t be Marionette about it; you’re a thousand times better than her”. She knew where to hit; Chloe’s prideful smile was all the proof she needed.

“You’re right I am way better than her. Why should I be using her technique for love it she just fails and makes a fool of herself?” Chloe holds a determined fist in front of her “my bird would be honoured to be my king”.

“Once you’ve proven yourself a queen” Pollen can’t help but tease making Chloe stick her tongue out at her. They turn to the window at the sound of the team yelling for her, team was getting tired of waiting.

“Guess we should hurry up here, teams getting restless” Chloe muttered putting her hands on her hips.

“You know if you’re still curious some old fairy tales come to mind” Pollen sings before she gets sucked into her miraculous.  
When the light dies down Queen Bee paused with her hand around the darkened rose in Nathaniel’s hands. A certain fairy tale did come to mind and her eyes were drawn to his small pink lips. Her heart pounded and she yanked the flower free, turning on her heel and flying out the window without looking back.

-Flashback end- 

“Um, you know like bits and pieces…like you liked my hair and uh something about Paon” he answers truthfully, he also heard someone else talking but they were too muffled for anything to be heard clearly. Bee releases the breath she was holding in relief, no angry lecture from Pollen tonight. 

Nath plays with the flower and finds a tag attached to the stem, in the dim moonlight he could make out it was an invite to the flower show next week. “Will I see you there?” Bee whispers trying not to sound too excited, she fails adorably. 

Nath smirks and looks up at her “wouldn’t miss it princess” without thinking he takes her hand and kisses it gently. As soon as he realised what he’d done they both blush and giggle nervously, god he was spending way too much time with Chat.

“See you then” Bee squeaks than flies out the window, careful not to disturb the nest but still show off as much as possible. She does at least one loop wings glowing like a cute little firefly, Nath watches her until he feels two eyes staring at him. 

He turns to face Adrien with a terrible cheeky smile lying down with his feet crossed in the air, his head rested on his arms. Nath doesn’t give him the satisfaction of a goofy excuse and crawls into his bed without another word. 

 

In an ally not far from the room Bee zips overhead causing a trash can to fall over. A green ball falls out of the can and unrolls into a tiny creature. It had large yellow eyes and tiny antennas on its head, it whimpers and sits up. 

A yellow light shoots out from somewhere and stops in front of the creatures face, making it yelp and jump back. The light fades revealing a tiny lion cub with large brown eyes and tiny claws on its paws “is everyone here?” she asks in a voice that was female but much deeper than expected out of a tiny body. 

Red, blue, orange and indigo lights creep out from their hiding spots behind trash cans. Each turning into their own creature, the red was a bright pink unicorn with white sparkly hooves and a small horn on its head. The blue was a tiny orca whale with a large fin instead of feet; it had white patches of skin around its nearly black eyes. The indigo turned into a bat with its wings attached to its nubby arms, small fangs poked out of its worried frown. Lastly the orange turned into a vulture with a very grouchy expression; unlike with Duusu he had a beak that looked ready to poke an eye out. 

“We’re down one” the unicorn sniffed starting to cry “I can’t sense Ennzo at all” the orca was imminently by her side offering a nub (fin?) to hold. 

“It’s what I feared; the wielder of destruction killed him. And that means he’s likely to come after us next” the lion hissed making the unicorn hug the orca and cry harder. Her eyes soften and she flies to the two and places a nub on the unicorn’s side “Miyuu I know you’re scared but you need to be brave right now”. 

“What can we do Purrde? We’re powerless without our wielders” the bat cries with a voice high enough it had to be female.

Purrde turned to her “much time has passed since we were banished; I believe it would be best for us to find new wielders for our protection”. The other kwami exchange depressed looks but nodded in agreement, “you have to test them, make sure they are worthy of your power before-“.

“That sounds like so much work” the green one complained from the ground, Purrde glared at him with a twitch where her eyebrow would be. “Can’t we just sit here and wait for someone to find us?” he adds brushing a piece of garbage away from his head.

“No what if Ladybug or one of her minions finds us?” The orca hissed letting Miyuu go and flying down and jabbing a nub on the green kwami’s head.

“Irrin calm down, there’s no point fighting amongst ourselves” the bat gently said flying in between the two and pushing them apart. 

“Thank you Wixxin” Purrde hums then stands waiting for everyone’s attention “during my flight around I discovered this city is known as Paris and it’s been nearly a hundred years since we’ve been on earth”.

“A hundred years! No wonder this place looks so weird” the vulture that had been rather quiet squawked and flapped his wings. Everyone starts to blab about random things they had seen in varying decrees of panic. 

“Everyone was holding up glowing boxes that made noise” Miyuu cried

“Their fire is touchable” Wixxin added referring to a light she had crashed into in an office. 

“What about those metal monsters roaming the streets?” Irrin said only for said metal monster to zip by them, a car with glaring lights. Naturally they all scream and hide waiting for the monster to leave; Purrde is first to peek out once the monsters roars had moved away. 

“This is why we need to find new wielders, do you guys understand?” Purrde hissed watching everyone else’s heads pop out from their hiding places.

Miyuu sniffed and nodded “I saw someone with kindness when I first appeared, I will test her”.

“Same goes for me, I saw someone who had a certain spark” Irrin chimed in, the vulture nodded behind him. 

“I still think we should just wait here” the green one says and receives an apple core to the face.

“This is why no one listens to you Bobby” Irrin roars.

 

Marionette wakes up the next morning to a knocking at the entrance to her room, her father peeks in “good morning Marionette, there’s a man out front asking for you, says he’s your Chinese teacher”. Marionette jumps out of bed saying she’ll be right down, sharing a concerned look with Tikki once her father had left to go back downstairs. 

“Good morning Marionette, I hope you don’t mind me coming in” Fu says sitting in the back room with her sharing a basket of cookies and cups of tea. 

“I don’t mind, it’s just-“she’s cut off by her mom coming into the room, Tikki shot into her hiding spot before she was spotted. 

“Marionette I didn’t know you were taking Chinese lessons” she said offering her hand to Fu who politely shook it. 

“Uh yeah I met him though school and thought it would be cool to surprise you” Marionette squeaked ending with a nervous laugh. 

“Well I’m afraid the reason I’m here is because I can no longer do these lessons”  
Marionette gasps and looks back at Fu, he smiles gently “I need to return home for a little while, but I do have a parting gift for you”. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a brown box with a Chinese symbol meaning generosity in bright red font “if it’s not your style you can always give it to a friend”. There’s a knowing smirk on his face and Marionette carefully takes it trying to hold in tears. 

Fu stands up to leave right as Tom appears carrying a large box full of stuff, he trips on a chair and the boxes contents go everywhere. “Here let me help you” Fu says bending down to pick up the nearest scroll of paper. He grabs and the old rubber band breaks letting it unroll, Fu looks at the painting and a small gasp comes from his mouth. “This is very beautiful, where did you get it?” Fu asks turning to Sabine to hand her the painting.

“Oh this-“Sabine starts using her hand to smooth out the lines in the ancient paper, time had been cruel but the picture was still clear and vibrant. “-My grandmother would tell me a story of the magnificent bird that saved her life” the painting had two figures, one a women with resemblance to Sabine and the other a peacock the size of the person. “She was lost in the mountains with nothing but the cloth on her back; she thought she was going to perish in the snow. But the story goes that this peacock appeared from the heavens and flew her to town”.  
Marionette stared at the peacock’s almost motherly expression as it held the woman in its beautiful wings. 

“The peacock stayed with her until she had given birth, but it’s just a silly bedtime story” Sabine said picking up the blue rock that had held the band on the painting, time had made it so fragile that it had broken in two. 

Fu smiled like he knew a secret, “it’s a wonderful story, you take good care of it” Sabine’s face lights up and she nods. 

Marionette raises a brow but doesn’t say anything until Fu turned to leave, “Fu I’m not sure if I can take this” she says holding the box out. “Isn’t it very important to you?” 

“It’s true I’ve been searching for it for a long time, but I know you’ll take care of it. Take care Marionette” he says with a small bow than exiting out the door. Marionette cracks open the box slightly and catch a glimpse of the miraculous inside; yup it’s what she thought it was. 

And she had to pick his next wielder…

With her parents still in the room, Marionette became the master of the internal scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I moved a scene from chapter 22 to here because I needed more time to make it good, I think it came out okay.  
> I've done it before but really thank you guys for sticking around to read this to the end, I'm so proud of what I've created and will be working hard on new projects in the future.  
> Now for a few random notes  
> Times a chapter or event was done entirely for a pun-29  
> Paon and Bee's weapons are summoned rather than on the costume because I forgot belts existed  
> I don't have a name for the next fic, but I do have chapter one started.

**Author's Note:**

> this was more work then I originally thought it was, I wrote the first chapter then rewrote parts at least fifteen times. I wanted it to be at least a decent sort of fanfic, and even now there are parts I question.  
> />  
> For using the miraculous butterfly's power on another miraculous, I thought it would work as more as a communicator and maybe a stat booster. Simply because if a past incarnation of the butterfly took control of ordinary people and made them fight it would still seem more like a villain's power then anything. So if it's used on another miraculous it does't akumatize them, and hawk moth would find a little loophole in that.  
> Finally for Nathaniel to have the peacock miraculous was just too funny not to write about, the shy artist having an alter ego of the most colorful member of the team? too cute.  
> Also going to call him Nat for the most bit as I have the most awful time spelling out his full name, maybe that will change with practice.  
> Oh yes and since I'm in a university course right now updating may not come often, but I do have an ending in mind as well as a few akuma fight scenes. So I will try my best to finish the story, and not fail my schooling at the same time.


End file.
